Astaroth the God of the Zidons, and Camos the God of the Moabites and Milcom the God of the children of Ammon

Jacques Cauvin (1978.134; 2000.22–29, 204–205,207–208) has postulated that Levantine ceramic female figurines were markers of the new ‘expansionist’ religion, which became a powerful social force and facilitated at an ideological level the transition to an agricultural way of life. In identifying what he understood was clear evidence for an inter-linked economic and religious transformation he believed that he had also discovered the reason why hunter gatherer people in villages outside the Levant did not develop subsistence production for themselves. He suggested that their failure to move over to the ‘humanisation’ of art and related new divinities could also have prevented them from moving over to a new type of economic practice. According to this interpretative scenario Europe thus could not have become Neolithicised until the ‘wave of advance’ and ceramic female figurines had reached the Balkans.

It was suggested recently that the distribution of Neolithic ceramic female figurines appears to have links with human genetic evidence. As Roy King and Peter A. Underhill (2002.707–714) have hypothesised, these figures are perhaps ‘the best genetic predictor’ of Neolithic farmers’ haplogrups and of the (re)population dynamics in Europe and Western Asia. It is due to the postulates that their geographic distribution correlates closely with the southeast-northwest cline of frequencies of Y chromosome markers and associated haplogroup Eu9 (J–M67* and J–M92 according to Semino et al. 2004.1030) in modern populations in Asia Minor and Europe, and, that all appear to originate in the same area of south-central Anatolia. The ceramic female figurines were hypothesized to appear at the same time as the emergence of cereal cultivation in the PPNA of the Levant. Moreover, they were believed to symbolise a series of gender and symbolic attributes that were carried forward with the spread of farming and went on to constitute part of the ‘new materiality’ that defined the key economic and ideological features of the Balkan Neolithic (Gimbuts 1989; Biehl 1996.153–175; Marangou 1996.176–2002; Chapman 2000;Bailey 2005; Hansen 2005.199–200).

However, the introduction of ceramic female statuettes, animal figurines and constructional ceramics were certainly not within the cultural domain of earlier Levantine hunter-gatherer societies, and nor they did not appear only on the ‘eve of the appearance of an agricultural economy’ as Cauvin (2000.25) suggested. The tradition of making figurines can be traced back to Central Europe, across the Russian Plain, into southern Siberia, and ultimately back to the Levant and Northern Africa. It is now clear that the clay figurine tradition was deeply embedded in pre-existing Eurasian hunter-gatherer social and symbolic contexts and that the dates of these figures begins as earlier as 26 000 years BP (Verpoorte 2001; Budja2004.59–81; 2005.53–72). For example, more than 16000 fragments of anthropomorphic figurines, zoomorphic statuettes, pellets, ‘earplugs’, flat fragments and constructional ceramic were recovered from the Central European Palaeolithic sites of Dolní Vestonice, Pavlov, Petrkovice, and Predmostí in Moravia. In the same region poorly preserved fragments of fired clay have also have also been recorded at Krems- Wachtberg, Moravany-Lopata, Jaro”ov, and hypothetically at Ka”ov and Cejkov (Soffer and Vandiver 1997.383–402; Verpoorte 2001) (Figs. 1 and 2), and while some may have been statuettes, their exact form remains unclear. Further to the East, on the Russian Plain, low-temperature-fired clay fragments were reported at Zaraisk and Kostenki Gravettian sites. At the latter, located on the banks of the River Don, more than four hundred fragments were found, contextually associated with marl and ivory Venus figures, and animal statuettes (Iakovleva 1999.125–134; Soffer, Adovasio and Hyland 2000.511–537;Soffer et al. 2000.814). Finally, the most easterly anthropomorphic ceramic figurine was found at an open air site at Maininskaya (Maina), on the left bank of the Yenisei River in Siberia (Vasil’ev 1985.193–196; Maina on-line).

All these early ceramic figurine assemblages can be assigned to the Pavlovian, a local variant of the Eastern Gravettian techno-complex, which dates back to around 26000 BP (Verpoorte 2001.86). For example, the ceramics at Kostenki were embedded in range of contexts, the oldest of which dates to 24 100 BP, and the most recent, to 18 000 BP (Soffer et al. 2000.814). Two dates are available for a ceramic figurine at Mayininskaya: at 16 540±170BP and 16 176±180BP (Vasil’ev 1985.193–196; Vasil’ev et al. 2002.526,Tab. 1). In addition, a lesser known fired ceramic sculpture, possibly representing a wild Barbary sheep (Ovis tragelaphus), was recovered from Tamar Hat Cave in Algeria, in an Ibero-Maurisian context which has been dated to 19 800±500 bp (Saxon 1976.327–329).

These finds point clearly to the fact that knowledge of ceramic technology had become ‘embedded’ into the agency of Eurasian hunter-gatherers many millennia before the appearance of food-producing agricultural societies. We must also note two other facts, first, that the making of ceramic figurines predates the making of pottery, and second, that pottery was not necessarily associated with the emergence of farming, as ceramic vessels were being made before the practice of early agriculture in Eastern Asia, and subsequently in the Levant, and Anatolia in Southwestern Asia.

Currently, the earliest known dates for ceramic vessels are from Southern China, where the direct dating of pottery at Miaoyan and Yuchanyan sites, based on insoluble residues, yield 14C values of 17 200–16 300 calBC (15 220±260 BP [BA94137b]) and 16 150–15 400 calBC respectively (14 390±230 BP [BA95057b]) (Zhao and Wu 2000.236–237; Pearson 2005.823). In the Russian Far East very early pottery found was also produced by hunter gatherer societies at the sites of Gromatukha and Gasya and has been dated to between 14 560–13 070 calBC (13 240 BP±85 [AA–20939] and 14 160–12 530 calBC (12 960±120 BP [LE–1781] (Kuzmin 2002.41,Tab.1; Zhushchikhovsaya 2005.13,17). Kuzmin, on contrary suggests there was an almost simultaneous appearance of pottery in Southern China at c. 13 700–13 300 BP, in Japan at c. 13 500 BP, and in the Russian Far East at c. 13 300 BP (Kuzmin 2006.362–371; see also Keally et al. 2004.349).

The first occurrence of ceramic vessels in Western Eurasia at circa 6900–6800 calBC marks the transition from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (PPNC) to the Pottery (or Late) Neolithic. The earlier pottery assemblages consist of coarse-wares, which are planttempered and undecorated. Several centuries pass before the emergence of elaborate painted styles and diverse shapes, which suggests that pottery had acquired a much wider significance in wider social contexts (Le Mière et Picon 1999.5–26; Aurenche et al. 2001.1197; Akkermans et al. 2006.123–156; Kozłowski and Aurenche 2005). However, the knowledge of firing clay was older than the first pottery vessels. We see the production of fired ceramic female and animal figurines from the very start of Pre- Pottery Neolithic (PPNA), at about 10 200 calBC onward, although these were being produced alongside ‘white ware’ vessels of carved sandstone, alabaster and marble.

“The representation of the netherworld on this “map” is limited to concentric circles around an island on which Osiris, ruler of the dead, can be seen wearing the typical atef crown. ” Egypt: the world of the pharaohs
Regine Schulz, Matthias Seidel, Hartwig Altenmüller

“The number of gates vary from spell to spell: twenty one, fourteen, fifteen, seven. The key idea is that of a concentric ring of protective walls around Osiris at the center.”
Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
John H. Taylor

“These are they who are in the Land of Serser; ‘they have received their bread, and they have gained the mastery over this Lake, and they praise this great god. Ra saith unto them:–’Eat ye your green herbs, and satisfy ye yourselves with your cakes; let there be fulness to your bellies, and satisfaction to your hearts. Your green herbs are of the Lake of Serser, the Lake which may not be approached. Praise ye me, glorify ye me, for I am the Great One of terror of the Tuat.’ They say unto Ra:–’Hail to thee, O thou Great One of the SEKHEMU (i.e., Powers)! Praise is thine, and majesty is thine. The Tuat is thine, and [is subservient] to thy will; it is a hidden place [made] by thee for those who are in its Circles. The height of Heaven is thine, and [is subservient] to thy will; it is a secret place [made] by thee for those who belong thereto. The Earth is for thy dead Body, and the Sky is for thy Soul. O Ra, be thou at peace (or, be content) with that which thou hast made to come into being.’ Their food consisteth of bread-cakes, their green herbs are the plants of the spring, and the waters wherein they refresh themselves are cool”

“These are they who make souls to have a right to the green herbs in the Lake of Serser. Ra saith unto them:–’[Hail, ye] divine sovereign princes of the gods, and ye chiefs of the Lake of Serser, who place souls over their green herbs, let them have dominion themselves over their bread; give ye your bread which is appointed, and bring ye your green herbs to the souls who have been ordered to exist in the Lake of Serser.’ They say unto Ra:–’The bread appointed hath been and the green herbs have been brought to the divine souls whom thou hast ordered to exist in the Lake of Serser. Hail! Verily, the way is fair; for KHENTI-AMENTI praiseth thee, and those who dwell in TA-THENEN praise thee.’ Their food is of bread-cakes, and their beer is the tchesert beer, and their libations are of cool water; and offerings are made unto them upon earth by those who are with TUI by the divine sovereign princes.”

“Hail to thee, O thou Thigh which dwelleth in the northern heaven in the Great Lake, which art seen and which dieth not. I have stood up over thee when thou didst rise like a god. I have seen thee, and I have not lain down in death; I have stood over thee, and I have risen like a god. I have cackled like a goose, and I have alighted like a hawk by the divine clouds and by the great dew. I have journeyed from the earth to heaven. The god Shu–made–me to stand up, the god of Light hath made me to be vigorous by the two sides of the ladder, and the stars which never rest set–me–on–my–way and bring–me–away from slaughter. I bring along with me the things which drive back calamities as I advance over the passage of the god Pen; thou comest, how great art thou, O god Pen! I have come from the Pool of Flame which is in the Sekhet-Sasa–i.e., the Field of Fire.–Thou livest in the Pool of Flame in Sekhet-Sasa, and I live upon the staff of the hold–god. Hail, thou god Kaa, who dost bring those things which are in the boats by the . . . I stand up in the boat and I guide myself–over–the water: I have stood up in the boat and the god hath guided me. I have stood up. I have spoken.–I am master of the–crops. I sail round about as I go forward, and the gates which are in Sekhem–Letopolis–are opened unto me, and fields are awarded unto me in the city of Unni–Hermopolis–, and laborers (?) are given unto me together with those of my own flesh and bone.”

or

“Hail to you, you plateau which is in the sky north of the Great Waterway, for whoever sees it will not die. I stand upon you, I appear as a god, I have seen you and I will not die. I stand upon you, I appear as a god, I cackle as a goose, I fly up thence as the falcon upon the branches. O Dew of the Great One, I cross the earth towards the sky, I stand up as Shu, I make the sunshine to flourish on the sides of the ladder which is made to mount up to the Unwearying Stars, far from decapitation. Bring me those who repel evil when I have passed you by at the polar region of Tepen. ‘Where have you come from?’ ‘O Tepen, I have come from the Lake of Burning in the Field of Fire.’ ‘What did vou live on in the Lake of Burning in the Field of Fire?’ ‘I lived on that noble tree of Ikaa who brought these boats from the Dried-up Lake for me. The water-jar was on … that I might stand in the Sacred Bark and guide the waters; that I might stand in the Sacred Bark and conduct the god;that I might stand up, mv staff being a rod.’ ‘ Go aboard and sail.’ The gates are opened for me in Letopolis,the earth is split open for me in Wenu, and the staffs have been given to me in respect of my inheritance.”

or

“Hail to Thee. thou district in the northern sky, even the great island. He who sees thee dies not; he who stands upon the dawns as a god. I have seen thee, and I have not died. I stand upon thee; I dawn as a god. I have honked as a smn-goose;I hover yonder as this falcon over the pate and fragrance of Horus. I cross the earth to the sky. While Shu stands still, I make fast the Sunlight on the sidepieces of the ladder that lets the Unweariable Stars ascend exempt from decapitation. I have brought these warders-off of evil as I passed thee on thy wooden wrt on my way to Tepen. “Whence hast thou come to Tepen?” I have come from the Isle of Fire, from the Field of Flame.”What dost thou live on in the Isle of Fire, in the Field of Flame”? I live on this august tree. “O PLanner, bring to him these ships from the hair-lake while the znbt-vase…..” I stand in the bark and rule the water; I stand in the bark and guide the god. I stand, I address the crop, when the traveler embarks. Opened for me are the gates in Letopolis; set aside for me are fields in Hermopolis. Given me are my brothers and sisters in the presence of my heir.”

“Praise be to thee O Ra, exalted Sekhem, Lord of the hidden circles of the Tuat…

“Praise be to thee, O Ra… and thou makest thy creations as Governor of thy circle.

“Praise be to thee, O Ra… Thou art he who gathereth together thy gods when thou goest into thy hidden circle.

“Praise be to thee, O Ra… the sender of light into his circle… thou art he who makest the darkness to be in his circle, and thou coverest those who are therein.

“Praise be to thee, O Ra… the illuminator of bodies in the horizens… thou art he who entereth into his circle.

“Praise be to thee, O Ra… thou goest in and comest out and thou comest out and goest in to thy hidden circle…

“Praise be to thee, O Ra_lord of the hidden circles_

“Praise be to thee, O Ra_ who resteth in the Tuat_

“Praise be to thee, O Ra_Governor of thy Circle_

“Praise be to thee, O Ra_the sender forth of light into his Circle_

“Praise be to thee, O Ra_thou art he who entereth into his circle_

“Praise be to thee, O Ra_of the Circles of Ament_”
Another Egyptian nome was called the Serpent-mountain, which was also repeated above with the great serpent winding round the tree or mountain of the north celestial pole. Thus the beginnings of the race and the environment were depicted for a purpose in the heaven of the north, and the field of the papyrus-reed that furnished the primeval food in the southern birthplace was set in Heaven, as the Aarru-field of peace and everlasting plenty on the summit of Mount Hetep at the pole.

In the Ritual (ch. 109) the paradise of plenty, first denoted by the water plants, has become the harvest-field which is surrounded and protected by a wall of steel. The wheat in this divine domain grew seven cubits high and was two cubits long in the ear. The barley, from which beer was brewed, was four cubits in the ear, but the original paradise, the Aarru or Allu, from which the Greeks derived their Elysian fields, was constellated as the land of the papyrus reed, the shoots of which were eaten as the primitive food that grew in the greatest abundance in the region of the two great lakes.

The most primitive ideal of paradise was that of an ever-green oasis, in the midst of the African desert, welling with life-giving water, and with the large-leaved sycamore fig tree or dom-palm or the papyrus plant at the centre as a figure of food. Inner Africa contains the prototype of the Egyptian paradise in a land of welling waters where the food came of itself and was perpetually renewed, and there was little need for labour. And when the outward movements of the wandering nomads began, and thirst and hunger were to be faced in waterless wastes of rootless desert sand, there would be yearnings of regret for the old lost home and birth-land left behind, now glorified by distance and the glamour of tradition. And so the universal legend grew which was not absolutely baseless. The felicity enjoyed in this primeval land of legendary lore is such as was possessed at one time on the earth, the upper paradise being a sublimated replica of a lower or terrestrial paradise. Thus, the primitive paradise of the Egyptians, as a land from which the human race had come, was constellated in the northern heaven as the top of attainment in a world to which they were going for an everlasting home, and in a clime where food and air and water never failed.

In the North, an Egypt of the heavens was figured first within the circle of the Greater Bear. This was the land of Khept, as a celestial locality. The circle was then divided into south and north, as double Egypt, upper and lower, and the two halves were described as the domains of Sut and Horus, who were the first two children of the ancient Genetrix, the mother of seven offspring altogether.

Hail, thou Runner, Lord, Only One, thou maker of the things that are, thou hast fashioned the tongue of the Company of the Gods, thou hast produced whatsoever cometh forth from the waters, thou springest up out of them above the submerged land of the Lake of Horus. Let me breathe the air which cometh forth from thy nostrils, and the north wind which cometh forth from thy mother Nut.

Papyrus of Hu : each of the qerets [circles] has an arret [hall] and these are seven in number traveling to the center where the god resides.

The Egyptian Ta-Nuter or divine land of the gods is usually described as being in the Orient. But there was also a Ta-Nuter Meh-ti, which is rendered by Brugsch, “das nordliche Gottesland” (Brugsch, Astron. and Astrol. Inscript., p. 179). This was the land of the gods in the north — that is, the polar paradise in heaven, not an elevated part of our earth. The breeze of the north was the breath of life to the Egyptians. It is synonymous with blessedness. The paradise of Hetep is the garden blessed with breezes. The breeze of the north, however, would not represent heaven to the dwellers in the northern quarter of the world. But the paradise was figured in the north originally, and there it remained in every land to which the wisdom of Old Egypt went. This will explain the paradise of Airyana Vaejo described in the Avesta. Ahura-Mazda tells Zarathustra that he has created a delectable spot which was previously unapproachable or nowhere habitable. But in this first of regions and best of countries there was winter during ten months of the year. “Ten months of winter are there, two of summer, and these (latter) are cold as to water, cold as to earth, cold as to plants; then as the snow falls around there is the direst disaster” (Vendidad, Fargard i.). The good god made the good creation, and Angro-Mainyus, the dark and deadly, is said to have formed a mighty serpent and brought on the frost that was created by the Dgevas, who correspond to the Sebau in the Ritual as agents of evil in physical phenomena. It is also said in the Minokhird (p. 322, ff.) the Dev of winter is most vehement in Airyana Vaejo. Which does not mean that the primal paradise was created at the northern pole of the earth, to be overtaken by the glacial period. The true interpretation is that the legendary paradise was astronomical, and that it was an enclosure at the north celestial pole, and not in the northern regions of the earth. In the Vendidad version it has been made geographical and rendered according to climate in some northern region of the earth; the evils of a winter world being then attributed to the devil, or the opposition of the black mind, Angro-Mainyus.

There is no Garden of Eden created in the first chapter of Genesis. No tree of life or knowledge was planted, nor is there any prohibition against eating the fruit of the tree. On the contrary, the primal pair, the male and female, are told that every herb and every tree are given to them for food. The theology of the Elohim differs from that of Iahu-Elohim. This agrees with a non-Semitic version of the creation legend (Records, New Series, vol. vi.), in which there is no garden created, no mention of man being placed in the garden to tend it; no tree of life, nor tree of knowledge; and no temptation by the serpent, or story of the Fall. The primal paradise, that of Shu and the seven support- gods in Am-Khemen, is thus differentiated from the garden of Ptah in the secondary creation or representation. To reach the Kamite root of the matter we have to distinguish betwixt the making of Amenta and the planting of the garden eastward. When “the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them,” man was formed; then Iahu-Elohim planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed, to dress it and to keep it. We have now to tell the story of Eden from the indefinitely older documents, legendary fragments of which have been mixed up together by the Elohistic and Jehovistic narratives in the book of Genesis.

Amenta and the garden of rest were not created for man the mortal, as mortal, on this earth. The man who was brought into being and placed in the garden to protect the tree of life and defend it from the depredations of the evil Apap, the serpent of darkness, the dragon of drought, the devouring reptile, was man in the likeness of Atum, or man the manes; the only man in the garden of Amenta, whether this is called the Aarru-Sekhet (field) or gan-Eden. The primal paradise was founded on the natural fact of the oasis. Following this, the fundamental idea of a paradise made by human workmanship is an enclosure in which there was a tree or plants for food and an unfathomable well-spring of water for drink. It was the oasis with some kind offence about it, which survives in the “little garden walled around” that is sung of in a modern hymn. Now, when the nomads of the equatorial regions wandered northward they left their primal paradise behind them as a geographical locality. This suffered a subsidence, in common with the southern pole, and was hidden beneath the horizon to become the legendary paradise that sank down under the waters and was lost, as would be indicated by the disappearing guide-stars, to become a subject of the Egyptian astromythology.

Chapter whereby one Saileth a Ship in the Netherworld.

Oh thou Leg in the Northern Sky, and in that most conspicuous but inaccessible Stream; I rise up and come to light as a god, I am conspicuous but inaccessible. I rise up and live, and bring myself to light as a god. I cackle even as the Smen-goose, but I stoop like the Hawk at the nets of the Great Fowler. I sail across the Sky, and Shu standeth erect and the Achmiu Stars are instantly active in raising the ladder which lifts the Setting Stars away from destruction. And I bear that which repelleth mischief as I make my voyage over the Leg of Ptah. I come from the Lake of Flame, from the Lake of Fire, and from the Field of Flame, and I live I stand erect in the Bark which the god is piloting at the head of Aarru, and the Achmiu Stars open to me and my fellow citizens present to me the sacred cakes with flesh.

Oh thou who sailest the ship of Nu over that chine which is void, let me sail the ship; let me fasten my tackle in peace; in peace! Come, come; Fleet one. Fleet one! Let me come to see my father Osiris. Oh thou who art veiled, let me enjoy happiness. Oh thou who art clouded, but manful, and who sailest round over that chine of Apepi; thou of firm head and steadfast breast when coming forth from the fiery blows: Oh thou who art at the ship, let me sail the ship, let me fasten my tackle and come forth. This place is empty, into which the starry ones fall down head-long upon their faces, and find not aught whereby they can raise themselves up. Narrow is the path as the tongue of Ra. The Patrol who goeth rounds and who piloteth the Double Earth: Seb abideth stably by means of their rudders: the divine Porch which revealeth the Solar Orb: and He who presideth over the Red ones. Let me be brought in as a distressed mariner, and let my Soul come to me, which is my brother, and go to that place which thou knowest. “Let me be told my name” say, 1. The Mooring-post. “Lord of the Double-Earth in the Shrine” is thy name. 2. The Blade of the Rudder. “Leg of Apis” is thy name. 3. The Hawser. “The Side-Lock which Anubis fastens on to the swathing work” is thy name, look. 4. The Stern or Stern Posts. “The two columns of the Netherworld” is thy name. 5. The Hold. “Akar” is thy name. 6. The Mast. “Bearer of the Great one whilst she passeth” is thy name. 7. The Keel. “Backbone of Apuat” is thy name. 8. The Mast-head. “Throat of Emsta” is thy name. 9. The Sail. “Nut” is thy name. 10. The Leathers. Made of the hide of Mnevis, “which Sutu hath scorched,” is thy name. 11. The Oars. “Fingers of the elder” is your name. 12. The Bracement. “Hand of Isis, stanching the blood of the Eye of Horus,” is thy name. 13. The Ribs. “Emsta, Hapi, Tuamautcf, Kebehsenuf, He who taketh captive. He who taketh by force, He who seeth his Father, and He who maketh himself,” are your names. 14. The Look-out: “Master of the (Ground)” is thy name. 15. The Tiller: ”Merit” is thy name. 16. The Rudder: “The Umpire, beaming forth from the water,” is thy name. 17. The Hull: “The Leg of Hathor, which Ra wounded, on his lifting her into the Sektit Boat,” is thy name. 18. The Boatman: “Off” is thy name. 19. The Breeze, since thou art conveyed by me: “The Northern Breeze proceeding from Tmu to the Nose of Chent-Amenta” is thy name. 20. The Stream, since thou sailest upon me: “Their Mirror” is thy name. 21. The Shallow: “Destroyer of the large-handed at the place of purification” is thy name. 22. The Laud, since thou walkest upon me: “The Tip of Heaven, the Coming forth from the swathings in the Garden of Aarru, and the Coming forth in Exultation,” is thy name. To be said before them. Hail to you. Fair in Form, Lord of issues, who are springing up for ever, and whose double goal is eternity: turn to me your hands, give to me food and offerings for my mouth; let me eat the Baat bread, the Shensu-cake and the Abti-cake: let my place be in the Great Hall in presence of the mighty god. I know that mighty god to whose nostrils ye present delicacies. Tekmu is his name: and whether he, whose name is Tekmu, turneth from the East or advanceth to the West, let his course be my course. Let me not be stopped at the Meskat ; let not the Sebau have mastery over my limbs. I have bread in Pu and beer in Tepu. Let your largesses of this day be granted to me; offerings of wheat and barley, offerings of anta and of vestments, offerings of oxen, and ducks, which are offerings for life, health and strength, and also offerings for coming forth by day, in all the forms in which it pleaseth me to come forth in the Garden of Aarru. If this chapter be known he will come forth at the Garden of Aarru; there will he given to him the Shensu-cake, the measure of drink and the persen-cake, and fields of wheat and barley of seven cubits. (It is the followers of Horns who reap them), for he eateth of that wheat and barley, and he is made whole in his limbs through that wheat and barley, and his limbs spring up even as with those gods. And he comet h forth in the Garden of Aarru in all the forms in which it pleaseth him to come forth.

BoD

Give me your arm, I am made as ye. Let him explain it. The blood is that which proceeds from the member of the Sun, after he goes along cutting himself. Those Gods who are made attached to the generation of the Sun are Hu, Ka: they are followers of their father Tum daily.

The Osiris has filled the Eye after he went and woke it the day of contending of the two Lion-Gods. Let him explain it. It is the day of the battle between Horus and Set, when [Set] he puts forth the ropes against Horus, when Horus has [not] taken the gemelli of Set. Thoth did the same with his own fingers.

The Osiris has bound his hair to the Eye at the time of battle. Let him explain it. It is the left Eye of the Sun when it sheds blood after he sends it, for Thoth is the binder of his hair, he brings it round, not fallen down, to its Lord; or, for the Eye wastes when it weeps. The second time Thoth was wiping it [?].

The Osiris has seen the Sun who is born in the star [morn] at the thigh of the Great Water. The Osiris goes forth, he goes forth in turn. Let him explain it. Nu is the Water of the heaven; or, the image of the Eye of the Sun is the Gate in which he has been born daily. The Great Water is the Eye of the Sun, because it is one of the Gods who belong to Horus; whose words exceed the wish of the Lord. Let him explain it. [They are] Amset, Hapi, Tuautmutf, Kabhsenuf.

Hail, ye Lords of Truth, Chiefs behind Osiris, smiting for faults, Followers of Her whose peace is sure [Heptskhes]! Let me come to you without fault. I do as ye do to the Seven Great Spirits in the service of their Lord, the Creator [or Judgment]. Anup made their places on that day [they answer] of our coming to you. Let him explain it. The Gods, Lords of Truth, I am Thoth and Astes Lord of the West; the Chiefs behind Osiris are Amset, Hapi, Tuautmutf, and Kabhsenuf. These same are behind the constellation of the Thigh [Ursa major] of the Northern heaven. The Givers of blows for sins, the Followers of Heptskhes, are crocodiles in the water. Heptskhes is the Eye of the Sun or Fire, the Followers of Osiris burning the wicked souls of his enemies. For if there is evil I guard his Eye from the Lords of the Age, whilst he proceeds from the belly of his mother. These Seven Spirits are Amset, Hapi, Tuautmutf, and Kabhsenuf, Maaentefef, Karbukef, Harkhent S’Khem. Anup places them for the protection of the coffin of Osiris, behind the wash-house of Osiris; or, these Seven Spirits are Het-het, Ket-ket, The Bull who never made smoke to swell in his flames, Going eating his hour, Red-eyes, Follower of the House of Ans, Hissing to come forth and turn back, seeing at night and bringing at day. The Chiefs are of Anrutf; the eldest is of his father the Sun. It is the day when we come to you. Says Osiris to the Sun: Come, behold me! The Sun stops himself in the West.

I am the Soul in his two halves. Let him explain it. Osiris goes into Tattu, he binds the soul of the Sun there. One and the other are united. He is transformed into his soul from his two halves, who are the sustainer of his father, and Horus who dwells in the shrine; or, the soul in his two halves is the soul of the Sun and the soul of Osiris, the soul of Shu, the soul of Tefnu, the souls who belong to Tattu.

I am the Great Cat which is in the Pool of Persea, which is at Annu, the night of the battle made to bind the wicked, the day of strangling the enemies of the Universal Lord there. Let him explain it. The Great Cat which is in Tattu, at the Pool of the Persea, placed in Annu, is the Sun himself, called a cat. For he has been called cat [by name] Ra, for it is like what he has done, he has made his transformation into a cat; or it is Shu making the likeness [?] of Seb and Osiris. For those who are in the Pool of the Persea, which is in Annu, are those born wicked justifying what they do. For the night of the battle their march is from the East of the heaven. The battle is made in heaven and on the whole earth.

The Sun in his egg, gleaming in orb, shining from his horizon, floating in his clouds, who hates sins, forced along by the conducting of Shu, without an equal among the Gods, who gives blasts of flame from his mouth, illuminating the world with his splendour. Save thou the Osiris from that God whose forms are mystic. His eyebrows are the arms of the Balance, the night of Theft-reckoning. Let him explain it. He is Arm-bringer. The night of Theft-reckoning is the night [ending] of flame against the fallen. The accuser of the sinful to be dragged to his block, punishing souls. Let him explain it. It is Maget, it is the annihilator of Osiris; or, it is Sap, he is with a head bearing Truth; or, it is the Hawk, who is with heads, one is having [or supporting] Truth, another has Sin, he has made the one having Sin to cause Truth to come under [bearing] it; or, it is Har who dwells in Skhem; or, it is Thoth; or, it is Nefer-Tum son of Bast. Oh Chiefs who return things to the enemies of the Universal Lord. Save ye the Osiris from the chief conductors, and the inferior executioners. The meek man injured does not escape from their custody. Those attached to Osiris do not prevail over me, I do not proceed to their braziers, because I know them, I know the name of Maget, who belongs to them in the House of Osiris. His bow is in his hand; he is invisible, going round in that region, with flame in his mouth, to Hapi he gives orders. He is invisible. The Osiris lived sound on earth like Ita; he has a good sleep like Osiris. I have made no opposition to those who are over their [lamps] censers, because they are the servants of the Universal Lord [or] Khepra in the pictures. The Osiris flies as a hawk and cackles as a goose; he does not perish for an age like Nahab. Let him explain it. It is Anup, it is Horus, it is he who dwells in S’Khem; or, it is Horus of the place of turning back; or, it is the Chiefs stopping the enemies of the Universal Lord there; or, it is the Great Opener of the place of Rejection. They do not exult there. I do not proceed to their braziers. Let him explain it. The images there over their censers are the image of the Sun, and the image of the Eye of Horus.

Oh, Lord of the Great Abode, Chief of the Gods! save thou the Osiris from the God whose face is in the [shape of] a dog, with the eyebrows of men; he lives off the fallen at the angle of the Pool of Fire, eating the body and digesting the heart, spitting out the bodies. He is invisible. Let him explain it. Eater of Millions is his name. He is in the Pool of Pant. For there is the Pool of Fire, which is in the Region of Anrutft at the Place of the Rejection. Every one who treads in it deficient falls to his blows; or, Hardness [Sword] is his name, he who is the doorkeeper of the West; or, Beba is his name, he who is the watcher of the of the West; or, He who is over Time is his name.

“I behold Ra who was born yesterday from the buttocks of the cow Meh-urt; his strength is my strength, and my strength is his strength.” What then is this? It is the water of heaven, or (as others say), It is the image of the eye of Ra in the morning at his daily birth. Meh-urt is the eye of Ra. Therefore Osiris, the scribe Ani, triumphant, [is] a great one among the gods who are in the train of Horus. The words are] spoken for him that loveth his lord. What then is this? Mestha, Hapi Tuamautef, and Qebhsennuf. “Homage to you, O ye lords of right and truth, and ye holy ones who [stand] behind Osiris, who utterly do away with sins and crime, and [ye] who are in the following of the goddess Hetep-se-khus, grant that I may come unto you. Destroy ye all the faults which are within me, even as ye did for the seven Shining Ones who are among the followers of their lord Sepa. Anubis appointed their place on the day [when was said], ‘Come therefore thither.'” What then is this? These lords of right and truth are Thoth and Astes, lord of Amenta. The holy ones who stand behind Osiris, even Mestha, Hapi, Tuamautef, and Qebhsennuf, are they who are behind the Thigh in the northern sky. They who do away with sins and crime and who are in the following of the goddess Hetep-se-khus are the god Sebek in the waters. The goddess Hetep-se-khus is the eye of Ra, or (as others say), It is the flame which followeth after Osiris to burn up the souls of his foes. As concerning all the faults which are in Osiris, the scribe of the holy offerings of all the gods, Ani, triumphant, [they are all that he hath done against the lords of eternity] since he came forth from his mother’s womb. As concerning the seven Shining Ones, even Mestha, Hapi, Tuamautef, Qebhsennuf, Maa-atef-f, Kheri-beq-f, and Horus-Khenti-maa, Anubis appointed them protectors of the body of Osiris, or (as others say), [set them] behind the place of purification of Osiris; or (as others say), Those seven glorious ones are Netcheh-netcheh, Aqet-qet, An-erta-nef-bes-f-khenti-heh-f, Aq-her-unnut-f, Tesher-maa-ammi-het-Anes, Ubes-hra-per-em-khet khet, and Maa-em-qerh-an-nef-em-hru. The chief of the holy ones who minister in his chamber is Horus, the avenger of his father. As to the day [upon which was said] “Come therefore thither,” it concerneth the words, “Come then thither,” which Ra spake unto Osiris. Lo, may this be decreed for me in Amentet. “I am the soul which dwelleth in the two tchafi.” What then is this? It is Osiris [when] he goeth into Tattu and findeth there the soul of Ra; there the one god embraceth the other, and souls spring into being within the two tchafi. [“I am the Cat which fought (?) by the Persea tree hard by in Annu, on the night when the foes of Neb-er-tcher were destroyed.”] What then is this? The male cat is Ra himself, and he is called Maau by reason of the speech of the god Sa [who said] concerning him: “He is like (maau) unto that which he hath made, and his name became Maau”; or (as others say), It is Shu who maketh over the possessions of Seb to Osiris. As to the fight (?) by the Persea tree hard by, in Annu, it concerneth the children of impotent revolt when justice is wrought on them for what they have done. As to [the words] “that night of the battle,” they concern the inroad [of the children of impotent revolt] into the eastern part of heaven, whereupon there arose a battle in heaven and in all the earth. “O thou who art in the egg, who shinest from thy disk and risest in thy horizon, and dost shine like gold above the sky, like unto whom there is none among the gods, who sailest over the pillars of Shu, who givest blasts of fire from thy mouth, [who makest the two lands bright with thy radiance, deliver] the faithful worshippers from the god whose forms are hidden, whose eyebrows are like unto the two arms of the balance on the night of the reckoning of destruction.” Who then is this? It is An-a-f, the god who bringeth his arm. As concerning [the words] “that night of the reckoning of destruction,” it is the night of the burning of the damned, and of the overthrow of the wicked at [the sacred] block, and of the slaughter of souls.

“Glory be to Osiris Un-nefer, the great god within Abydos, king of eternity, lord of the everlasting, who passeth through millions of years in his existence. Eldest son of the womb of Nut, engendered by Seb the Erpat, lord of the crowns of the North and South, lord of the lofty white crown. As Prince of gods and of men he hath received the crook and the flail and the dignity of his divine fathers. Let thy heart which is in the mountain of Amenta be content, for thy son Horus is stablished upon thy throne. Thou art crowned lord of Tattu and ruler in Abtu. Through thee the world waxeth green in triumph before the might of Neb-er-tcher. He leadeth in his train that which is and that which is not yet, in his name Ta-her-seta-nef; he toweth along the earth in triumph in his name Seker. He is exceeding mighty and most terrible in his name Osiris. He endureth for ever and for ever in his name Un-nefer. Homage to thee, King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of princes, who from the womb of Nut hast possessed the world and hast ruled all lands and Akert. Thy body is of gold, thy head is of azure, and emerald light encircleth thee. O An of millions of years, all-pervading with thy body and beautiful in countenance in Ta-sert. Grant thou to the ka of Osiris, the scribe Ani, splendour in heaven and might upon earth and triumph in Neter-khert; and that I may sail down to Tattu like a living soul and up to Abtu like a bennu (phœnix); and that I may go in and come out without repulse at the pylons of the Tuat. May there be given unto me loaves of bread in the house of coolness, and offerings of food in Annu, and a homestead for ever in Sekhet-Aru with wheat and barley therefore.”

The temple hymns: c.4.80.1
O ……, bolt founded by An, (4 lines fragmentary) (1 line missing) (1 line fragmentary) (approx. 2 lines missing)…… has erected a house in your precinct, O ……, and taken a seat upon your dais.

And Ellil took the earth for his people.
The bolt which bars the sea
Was assigned to far-sighted Enki.
When Anu had gone up to the sky,
And the gods of the Apsu had gone below,
The Annunaki of the sky
Made the Igigi bear the workload.

At that time Adapa, the son of Eridu, When he had got the leader Enki out of bed, Used to `feed’ the bolt of Eridu every day.

The noise of humankind has become too loud for me, with their uproar I can not go to sleep.
Command that Anu and Adad guard the upper realm, Sin and Nergal guard the middle earth,
and that Ea may guard, together with his plants, the bolts, the bar of the sea
Thus no water or food escaped,. and the rigours of famine returned

Again Enki accedes to the pleas of Atrakhasis and somehow the bolt barring the sea is broken and hoards of fish (one shar, 3600) are released to starving humanity. Enlil accuses him:
I ordered that Anu and Adad should guard the upper regions,
that Sin and Nergal should guard the middle earth,
while I myself guard the earth below,
and that you should guard, together with your plants, the bolt and bar of the sea.
But you released an abundance to the people. . . .

The one who rides the great storm, who charges with lightening, who, with the holy bolt blocks up the inside of heaven,
son of An, the canal-inspector of heaven and earth.
Iskur, the man of abundance, the son of An,Enki placed in charge of it

Who closes the holy bolt in the “heart” of heaven,
The son of An, the GUGAL of the universe,
Ishkur . . , the son of An,
Enki placed in charge of them.
He directed the plow and the . . yoke,
The great prince Enki put the “horned oxen” in the . . . ,
Opened the holy furrows,
Made grow the grain in the cultivated field.
The lord who dons the diadem, the ornament of the high plain,
The robust, the farmer of Enlil,
Enkimdu, the man of the ditch and dike,
Enki placed in charge of them.

My brother, I will go round in the streets …….” (The demons said:) “Unless Geštin-ana is aware of Dumuzid’s whereabouts, she is indeed looking frightened! She is indeed screaming in a frightened way! Come, let us go to the sheepfold and cow-pen!” When the first demon entered the sheepfold and cow-pen, {he set fire to the bolt} {(1 ms. has instead:) he shouted ……}. When the second entered the sheepfold and cow-pen, he set fire to the shepherd’s stick. When the third entered the sheepfold and cow-pen, he removed the cover of the holy churn.

Marduk then creates the new Universe. First, he splits Tiamat’s fallen body into two parts. With one half of her body, he creates the visible heavens; the other half he secures in the Underworld with a bolt, so that her waters cannot escape. Having done this, Marduk measures the fallen body of Apsu and creates an invisible Heaven, Esharra, in its image.

O Shamash, king, who maketh
known to the prince his command
of
The brilliant mountain, the great
bolt, its neck
O Shamash, inmidst of the heaven
greatly
Inmidst of the world (and) its wide
desert thou dwellest.
O Shamash, judge, O Shamash,
decider,
O Shamash, judge of the gods,
O Shamash, decider, father of the
Anunaki,
O Shamash, born of father Enlil,
O Shamash, powerful lord of the
splendid heaven,
O Shamash, just god of judgment,
O Shamash, shepherd, father of the
black-headed,
O Shamash, chief judge of the land,
O Shamash, a judge art thou!
O Shamash, a decider art thou!
O Shamash, truth art thou!
O Shamash, life art
thou!

The roar of its splendor
Help thee!
Smear meal-water,
The powerful protection !
Smear the doors
With meal-water!
The house-door
The bolt of the house!
The hand that tears (it) off
Cut off!

By the seven winds, by the four
regions of heaven and earth may-
est thou be exorcised.
By the night which overcometh the
dawn mayest thou be exorcised.
By the pillar, the bolt, which submit
the lands, the devastating wind
of the ocean-floods mayest thou
be exorcised.
Not a single tree shall thou root out !
Not a single reed shall thou pluck
out!

An early division of the Duat is the Urnes, 309 iteru long. The other divisions are of equal length, which leads to a length of 12 x 309 = 3708 iteru. To this one must add the width of Egypt. The length of Egypt is stated as early as the Middle Kingdom is 106 iteru.
But Jürgen ZEIDLER proposes a different calculation. The text at the beginning of the Amduat says : “This god enters the Western Gate of the Horizon. Seth stands along the shore. It is 120 iteru coming to this gate, before the bark reaches the Netherworld-dwellers. One then continues to Urnes.” Thus from Egypt to where Re entered the Netherworld, was a distance of 120 iteru, about 1255 km

——————————————-

Upon hearing this, Solon said that he marvelled, and with the utmost eagerness requested the priest to recount for him in order and exactly all the facts about those citizens of old. The priest then said: “I begrudge you not the story, Solon; nay, I will tell it, both for your own sake and that of your city, and most of all for the sake of the Goddess who has adopted for her own both your land and this of ours, and has nurtured and trained them,—yours first by the space of a thousand years, when she had received the seed of you from Ge and Hephaestus,1 and after that ours. And the duration of our civilization as set down in our sacred writings is 8000 years. Of the citizens, then, who lived 9000 years ago, I will declare to you briefly certain of their laws and the noblest of the deeds they performed: the full account in precise order and detail we shall go through later at our leisure, taking the actual writings. To get a view of their laws, look at the laws here; for you will find existing here at the present time many examples of the laws which then existed in your city. You see, first, how the priestly class is separated off from the rest; next, the class of craftsmen, of which each sort works by itself without mixing with any other; then the classes of shepherds, hunters, and farmers, each distinct and separate. Moreover, the military class here, as no doubt you have noticed, is kept apart from all the other classes, being enjoined by the law to devote itself solely to the work of training for war. A further feature is the character of their equipment with shields and spears; for we were the first of the peoples of Asia1 to adopt these weapons, it being the Goddess who instructed us, even as she instructed you first of all the dwellers in yonder lands. Again, with regard to wisdom, you perceive, no doubt, the law here—how much attention it has devoted from the very beginning to the Cosmic Order, by discovering all the effects which the divine causes produce upon human life, down to divination and the art of medicine which aims at health, and by its mastery also of all the other subsidiary studies. So when, at that time, the Goddess had furnished you, before all others, with all this orderly and regular system, she established your State, choosing the spot wherein you were born since she perceived therein a climate duly blended, and how that it would bring forth men of supreme wisdom. So it was that the Goddess, being herself both a lover of war and a lover of wisdom, chose the spot which was likely to bring forth men most like unto herself, and this first she established. Wherefore you lived under the rule of such laws as these,—yea, and laws still better,—and you surpassed all men in every virtue, as became those who were the offspring and nurslings of gods. Many, in truth, and great are the achievements of your State, which are a marvel to men as they are here recorded; but there is one which stands out above all both for magnitude and for nobleness. For it is related in our records how once upon a time your State stayed the course of a mighty host, which, starting from a distant point in the Atlantic ocean [Ἀτλαντικοῦ πελάγους], was insolently advancing to attack the whole of Europe, and Asia to boot. For the ocean [πέλαγος] there was at that time navigable; for in front of the mouth which you Greeks call, as you say, ‘the pillars of Heracles,’ there lay an island which was larger than Libya and Asia together; and it was possible for the travellers of that time to cross from it to the other islands, and from the islands to the whole of the continent over against them which encompasses that veritable ocean [πόντος]. For all that we have here, lying within the mouth of which we speak, is evidently a haven having a narrow entrance; but that yonder is a real ocean [πέλαγος], and the land surrounding it may most rightly be called, in the fullest and truest sense, a continent. Now in this island of Atlantis [Ἀτλαντίδι νήσῳ] there existed a confederation of kings, of great and marvellous power, which held sway over all the island, and over many other islands also and parts of the continent; and, moreover, of the lands here within the Straits they ruled over Libya as far as Egypt, and over Europe as far as Tuscany. So this host, being all gathered together, made an attempt one time to enslave by one single onslaught both your country and ours and the whole of the territory within the Straits. And then it was, Solon, that the manhood of your State showed itself conspicuous for valor and might in the sight of all the world. For it stood pre-eminent above all in gallantry and all warlike arts, and acting partly as leader of the Greeks, and partly standing alone by itself when deserted by all others, after encountering the deadliest perils, it defeated the invaders and reared a trophy; whereby it saved from slavery such as were not as yet enslaved, and all the rest of us who dwell within the bounds of Heracles it ungrudgingly set free. But at a later time there occurred portentous earthquakes and floods and one grievous day and night befell them, when the whole body of your warriors was swallowed up by the earth, and the island of Atlantis [Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος] in like manner was swallowed up by the sea [θάλασσα] and vanished; wherefore also the ocean [πέλαγος] at that spot has now become impassable and unsearchable, being blocked up by the shoal mud which the island created as it settled down.”

]]>https://shebtiw.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/circles/feed/0shebtiwthe gardenhttps://shebtiw.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/the-garden/
https://shebtiw.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/the-garden/#respondFri, 13 Nov 2009 16:36:34 +0000http://shebtiw.wordpress.com/?p=98]]>Enki and the world order: c.1.1.3
“At my command, sheepfolds have been built, cow-pens have been fenced off. When I approach heaven, a rain of abundance rains from heaven. When I approach earth, there is a high carp-flood. When I approach the green meadows, at my word stockpiles and stacks are accumulated. I have built my house, a shrine, in a pure place, and named it with a good name. I have built my Abzu, a shrine, in ……, and decreed a good fate for it. The shade of my house extends over the …… pool. By my house the suḫur carp dart among the honey plants, and the eštub carp wave their tails among the small gizi reeds. The small birds chirp in their nests.”

“The Lydians” writes Pausanias (lib. I. 35. 7) “tell that Geryon, Chrysaor’s son, lived near the torrent called Oceanos potamos and that there was his seat, in a mountain gap”.

[The enclosure] formed by Yim is in the middle of Pars, in Sruva; thus, they say, that what Yim formed (Yim-kan/) is below Mount Yimakan

The reign of Gopatshah is over the country of Gopato, coterminous with Airan-vej, on the bank of the water of the Daitik
The Daitik river is the river which comes out from Airan-vej, and goes out through the hill-country; of all rivers the noxious creatures in it are most, as it says, that the Daitik river is full of noxious creatures.
The good Daitya of Airan-vej is also mentioned in Vend. I, 6, II, 42, 43, Aban Yt. 17, 104, Ram Yt. 2, but this may not be a river, though the phrase has, no doubt, led to locating the river Daitik in Airan-vej

The Daraga river is in Airan-vej, on the bank (bar) of which was the dwelling of Porushasp, the father of Zaratust

In the seventh Menu Satyavrata’s reign, the Hindus believe the whole earth to have been destroyed by a flood, including all mankind that had become corrupt except for the pious prince and the seven Richis and their several wives; who, by command of Vishnu, entered a bahitra, or spacious vessel accompanied by pairs of all animals. Vishnu in the form of a fish commanded that the ark be fastened by a cable, formed by a vast serpent, fastened to his stupendous horn, secured thereby until the flood subsided when he and Brahma slew a monster Hyagriva, who while Brahama was reposing at the end of a Kalpa, stole the Vedas and mankind slipped into ignorance and impioty. This mighty demon is called the Prince of Danavas, his name means horse-necked.

Piut’hivi is the goddess of the Earth. Viswacarma, the artificer of the universe, that is the lord of creation assuming that character, moulded the earth, aud it became prithivi—conspicuous; and therefore is that name, Prithivi, assigned to the earth.—As. Res. Vol. VIII. p. 452.

Prit’hu is her husband : he was an incarnation of Vishnu; as related in the following fable

Vena, being an impious and tyrannical prince, was cursed by the Brahmans; and in consequence died without issue. To remedy this, his left arm was opened, and churned with a stick till it produced a son ; who, proving as wicked as his father, was set aside; and the right arm was in like manner churned, which also produced a boy, who proved to be a form of Vishnu under the name of Prit’hu. *

Gods and men came to make obeisance to him, and to celebrate his appearance on earth. He married a form of the goddess Lakshmi, who was thence named Prit’hivi, or Prit’hwi, and was in fact the earth ; and at this time refused so obstinately to give her wonted supplies to mankind, that Prit’hu was forced to beat and wound her; when she (the earth), assuming the form of a cow, ascended to Meru to complain to the gods ; who, on learning that she refused the common necessaries of life, not only to mankind in general, but to Prit’hu, her husband, rejected her complaint. Prit’hu and his descendants were allowed to beat and wound her in cases of noncompliance, and the earth reluctantly submitted ; and since that time mankind are continually wounding her with ploughs and other implements of husbandry.

Prit’hu was fond of agriculture, became a husbandman, cut down forests, levelled the earth, &c.; which is to be understood by his quarrel with the earth.

In the form of a cow Prit’hivi was milked by Swayambhuva, or Adam, grand ancestor of Prit’hu, who so employed him: perhaps the old sire took delight in attending the dairies and fields of his beloved Prit’hu.— lb. p. 256.

Mr. Wilford thinks this Prit’hu to be the same with Satyavrata, or Noah. His heavenly father was the Sun ; and Satyavrata is also declared to be an incarnation of Vishnu. Here it must be observed, that at night, and in the west, the Sun is Vishnu : he is Brahma in the east, and in the morning : from noon to evening he is Siva.— lb. p. 254.

In another place, (As. Res. Vol. VIII. p. 299.) Mr. Wilford finds Ila, a name of the daughter of King Bharata, the fifth from Swayambhuva, or Adam.—” Her name was Ila, or the earth: this was also the name of the daughter of Satyavrata, or Prit’hu ; for though the earth was his wife, she also became his daughter.”—And in page 318, we find.” Ila to signify the earth: Ila, or Ilas, was the son of Mbnu, or Noah ; called also Mitra VaRuna in the Puranas, or the friendly Varuna, or Neptune.” Sir W. Jones also mentions Ila as the daughter of the seventh Menu, or Satyavrata : he married her to the first Buddha, or Mercury, who was the son of ChanDra, the Moon; whose father was Atri, son of Brahma. Unless Ila be a name appertaining to more persons than one, it is here applied to the wife, daughter, and son, of Prit’hu, or Noah ; or the seventh Menu, surnamed Satyavrata and Vaivaswata.

Yama is a very important deity: his name occurs frequently in the sacrificial ceremonies of the Hindus; oblations and invocations to him, forming a portion of several of those ceremonies. He is regent of the south, or lower world, in which the Hindus place the infernal regions; thus corresponding, as the judge of departed souls, with the Grecian Pluto, or Minos. Minos has before been supposed the same with Menu; with whom, especially with the seventh, Satyavrata, Yama also agrees in character, as well as in name; both being called Vaivaswata, or offspring of the Sun, and Srad’hadeva, or lord of the SraSha.

Among his names are Dharma-raja, or king of justice; Pitripeti, or lord of the Pitris, or patriarchs; Mritu, or Mrityu, or Death, a title also of Siva, or Kala. Susanyama, and Vaivaswata Yama, are derivatives: the first from a word implying comeliness, or beauty; the other from his solar origin. KriTanta is another name; and Kritamala being the name of a river connected with the history of Satvavrata, the epithets may have a common origin.

“The first record…of the Sanctified God who came into being at the First Occasion, sets out a picture of a primaeval island (iw). This island has a principal name Island of Trampling [or Crushing] (iw titi)…the name of a region in which the creation took place, is known to us only from the first Edfu cosmogonical record…The sacred place Djeba in Wetjeset-Neter having been created, the Sanctified Ruler…appeared. He came from the underworld…as a protector, and is said to resemble the Nefer-her. [the sanctified {nefer also means beautiful} falcon- hr or Hor-Light] Subsequently the sacred place received the name Underworld of the Soul…Then the Lord of the Wing (ndm ndb) arrived in the island…the Place-of-Uniting-of-Company. The meaning of the name…might refer to a group of divine beings who had died…[the word smd describes the arrival of gods in which a new settlement was to be founded] Wetjeset-Neter…is interpreted as…restoring the Ancestors.” Pages 12-22 “Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple” by E.A.E. Reymond.

“The domain of the Wetjeset-Neter is now attacked by the enemy-snake, [interpreted in Oahspe as corporeality] and Heter-Her [Hor-Or-Light] is hard pressed…When the enemy, the snake, appeared at the landing stage of that domain, a bw-titi, Place-for-crushing, was planned and protective guards of the god were formed…The Place-for-crushing resembled a ifdw [four sides] of the divine shelter (nwt) within that domain…there is an allusion to a fight on the earth in front of the shelter. Another fight took place at the same time in the sky, in which the Falcon [Hor] was believed to fight against the snake named sbty.” Pages 23,34,35 “Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple” by E.A.E. Reymond.

“The Edfu cosmogonical records begin with a picture of the primaeval island where the gods were believed to have lived first…which, in part, was covered with reeds…We know from the Edfu texts that the Earth-Maker created the grounds for the domains of the gods (niwt)…by virtue of the word of the Earth-Maker…He is said to be the snake who created the Primaeval Ones…who created the Earth…This quotation seems to reveal a tradition according to which the first creative power, represented eventually as a snake, was believed to be the Earth-God…the Sole Unique One without peer, who was first to fashion the Earth upon his (potters) wheel [keep in mind that a pot is round and spinning thus dispelling the myth that the ancients did not know the world to be round, MHJ] who created men, gave birth to the Gods, Lord of the Universe, Ruler of the Primaeval Ones, the First Primaeval One who came into being before the Primaeval Ones.” Pages 59-61 “Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple” by E.A.E. Reymond.

“This text seems to imply a belief in the existence of a group of nameless [shmw] deities who existed before the origin of the world, and who were believed to act as a single creating power…these powers are described as the Primaeval Ones…the lords of the light…The Ghosts, the Ancestors…These nameless Creators of the Earth seem to have been regarded as its original inhabitants…they are also described as the Great Ennead…the Sanctified Ones who…created their own bodily form for themselves, who fashioned themselves as their (own) work…divine beings described as…the word Company…[it] may have been the name of some divine beings who eventually formed the company of the nameless god described as Pn…The name Pn as a divine name is known to us…as a subsidiary name of Ptah.” Pages 63,74,77,78,94,95 “Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple” by E.A.E. Reymond.

“The general tone of the beginning of the first record seems to convey the view that an ancient world, after having been constituted, was destroyed, and as a dead world it came to be the basis of a new period of creation…life developed within the island; this then became the scene of various mythical events, such as, for instance, the titi. Theoretically titi can be interpreted as trampling or aggression. It may be surmised that there was a fight in the island…the result that the divine inhabitants died. This interpretation accords with other parts of the first Edfu record which alludes to the death of the Company…A further important fact that emerges…the allusion to the underworld…makes it clear that the underworld was believed to have existed before the world was created…the Underworld of the Soul.” Pages 106,107,114 “Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple” by E.A.E. Reymond.

“The Pn-God…is to be linked with the gnn, the Weak One…believed to reside in a field of reeds, who died there and whose mortuary image was hidden in the same field of reeds…the first act of creation…in the Island of Trampling was solely an act of recreation of a divine world which once existed…in the first place a bw-titi, Place-for-Crushing, was planned. Then appeared on the scene a large company of divine beings…the whole company (tt) was then divided into four groups; each group was placed along one side of the bw-titi…Thereafter the snake was overthrown and the victorious gods are said to have settled (sndm) beside him…The divine powers who were believed to have acted in this phase of creation were the deities who took part in the former process; they were the Progeny of the Earth-God.” Pages 125,195,214 “Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple” by E.A.E. Reymond.

“Imitating the physical appearance of the first domain that ever came into existence…the vanished realm of the Pn-God…marks the starting-point in the creation of the new type of sacred abode: the temple…In fact a well-known text on the inner face of the enclosure wall of the temple at Edfu tells us that the temple was built at the dictates of the Ancestors according to what was written in this book which descended from the sky to the north of Memphis…We are of the opinion that the Edfu records preserve the memory of a predynastic religious center…on which the Egyptians looked as the homeland of the Egyptian temple…It looks as though the Egyptians believed that there was one land only in which all the orders of creation were effected…in which the Lord of All was the Earth-God and his immediate successor the Winged One.” Pages 215,262,263,274 “Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple” by E.A.E. Reymond.

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‘Enclosed in a box’ is given on the tablets as the equivalent of ‘Nu-u-Hu.’ This, says the translator, will afford us a new meaning for the name of Noah, and perhaps the derivation of the word. Unfortunately for the suggestion, this enclosure of Noah, according to the hieroglyphics, might have been nnuh, a rope-noose, to twist and tie, as this is one of the signs of enclosing, and is really a form of the ark itself, a determinative of ark, to surround, envelop, enclose, to appoint a limit, fix by decree, the end of a period. The noose of Ta-urt was, so to say, the first form of the ark enclosure. This enclosure of Noah (or Nun) may also be a water-vase, can, or khen, a house, or a box even, with which the god Nu ‘s name is written as a phonetic nu, ideographic Nun. The meaning of Nu-u-Hu does not start from the box interpreted by the ark of Noah.

In the Babylonian creation Anu is said to select certain stars as measuring stars, and regulators of time and period called ‘period stars.’ A list of seven of these is given named the ‘Measures.’ The proper name is tamsil and the determinative denotes a sheep or flock. These were the shepherding stars of the celestial flock. Sil, or ser , means to regulate, dispose, arrange, be at the head. The ser is also the name of the builder’s measuring-line. The guiding-stars and timekeepers were known by the name of the Disposers. Tam, in Akkadian, is a day, but the word tamsil is the amsil formed with the t prefix, and t-am is the equivalent of am-t . Am is written with the cross sign, and is a figure of crossing, like tek of the tekani (decani), or stars that crossed every ten days. Amt means in the middle of; that is, in the mid-heaven, the centre at the moment of culmination, the transit or crossing. In the calendar of astronomical observations found in the royal tombs of the twentieth dynasty, the crossing stars are described in seven different positions portrayed by means of the human figure, thus: 1—left shoulder; 2—left ear; 3—left eye; 4—in the middle; 5—right eye; [p.472] 6—right ear; 7—right shoulder. This chart of the seven positions, and measure of seven degrees, will probably be found to be connected with the Akkadian tamsil, and the seven measures of starry time.

The first tamsil, whether as constellation or crossing-stars, were the seven stars of Ursa Major, the seven of the Chinese bushel measure, and the seven in number still dominates in the measure by seven vertical lines being drawn to determine the passage of the stars. As so often iterated, for the sake of saving the reader the trouble of continual cross reference, the Great Bear constellation was depicted as the typhonian goddess of gestation, the hippopotamus, one of whose names is Teb. The star Dubhe, in the Great Bear, still preserves the name of Teb or Typhon in heaven. Also tabi is an Egyptian name of the bear. The Assyrian name of the bear is dabu, and this is applied to the constellation Kakabu dabi, the star of the Bear. But the difficulty of Assyriologists has been to determine the nature of the animal when the name was used. For instance, the word sakh is the Akkadian equivalent for the Assyrian dabu, and one translator finds the name to be more appropriate to the hippopotamus than to the bear; another doubtfully suggests the beaver, and each without reference to those Egyptian things which determine the names. The teb was the hippopotamus of Egypt, and the name was afterwards given to the bear, or rather the bear followed the water-horse as the image of the bearing mother, Teb. The Akkadian name of the bear is sakh, and in Egyptian sakh denotes the illuminator and enlightener. Sâhu (sakhu) also means to perambulate, go round, a revolving group of stars. Orion, for instance, is a sahu or sakhu. But the seven stars constituted the first sakhu. These, with Sirius added, are the eight signified by the eight-pointed star of Sut as before explained.

In Egyptian the number seven in one form is written sefekh, in another sekhef. My own conclusion is that these resolve into sef or kef with the value of number five, or the hand, which with the terminal ti signifies number seven, as sebti, hepti or khepti, and that the name of the goddess Seven (read Sefekh) really denotes the secondary form of sef or khef, needing the two horns or tongues, as the ti to make the full sign of number seven.

Skhef will deposit both sef and khef as types for number seven skhef and sefkh will modify and meet in sekhu with the passing of f into u. Here alone, in Egyptian, do we unearth a root or type-word for a particular form of the seven found in schuh, Norway gipsy; sik, Arago, (Papuan); tsook, Skwali; tseek-wah, Skittegats; huisca, Guajiquiro; shakoee, Yankton (Sioux); shahko, Winebago; shakopi, Dakota; seigbe, Khotovzi (Yeniseian); sqwithi, Mingrelian; s’kit, Lazic; isgwit, Suanic; s’widi, Georgian; Targumic, zgtha (אתגז), synonymous with gaish for a group of (seven?) stars; seacht, Irish; seachd, Scotch; shiaght, [p.473] Manx, which latter modify into seyth, Cornish, and saith, Welsh. Sekhf then is probably the older form of sakhu and sâhu, the constellation which is identified by the Akkadian sakh as the seven stars or the sevenfold-star of the Bear. Nor is this the only form of the seven or seventh to be found under the name, for sakus was the Assyrian kaivanu, the Hebrew ןויכ Kivan, the star of Israel which has been mixed up with the male Saturn; Lubatu sakus being a title of Saturn. Sakus as the planet Seven agrees with this derivation of sakh for the seven stars, whilst the seven and seventh of sakhu and sakus afford good evidence that the earlier typical sakhu or sâhu was the constellation of seven stars, and that all these are forms of the word skhf for number seven.

The Bear is also named Sakh-Khussu, in Assyrian Russu. In Egyptian khus means the turner back or returning one, and rus signifies to rise up, watch, and be vigilant. The seven stars of the Bear were the earliest revolvers and watchers, the illuminators of the mind’s eye of the first observers. The Bear is likewise designated, in Akkadian, sakh-sika. Sika means to drag and draw with the leg for determinative, and the Bear is the constellation of the hinder thigh. Sika is also the plough, another name of the same constellation. Further, the Bear is called Sakh-Maganna, and Magan or Makan has been identified as Egypt, or the ship-region. The Bear of Egypt is the hippopotamus, the Egyptian type of the goddess of the seven stars. The pregnant hippopotamus, the bearer of the waters, was the primordial ark; she was Teb, the living Teba; before boats were built she was the ship of the north.

Ma-Khan means the bearer of the waters, and when the Egyptians could build a boat they named it the makhan, from ma, water (or the mother), and khan, to carry, bear, transport, navigate. The makhennu is the boat of souls, and the primordial image of this in heaven was the group of seven stars, whose khenit or sailors were the seven Cabiri, of the Sakh-Maganna, the bearer as the Bear. The proof of this is furnished by the seven spirits of the Great Bear being called the planks in the boat of souls, which is the makhehnu. The mundane type of the boat appears in the magana (Tasmanian), the name of the mons veneris or uterus, the primordial makhen as the boat of the living. In the Kiwomi and Coehetimi dialects maichana is the name for number seven, which illustrates the interchange of the original type-names. In the same way maganna as the name of Egypt equates with khebt which also has the value of number seven, from khep the hand, and ti, two, whence hepti for no.7.

In the Chaldean creation it is said of the god, ‘He made the year into quarters,’ and the word for quarters is mizrata, sometimes written mizriti; the etymology is uncertain. Mest represents the Hebrew mitz in Mitzraim, and is the birthplace; ret or rat is to repeat, be repeated, several. Mest-rat yields the divisions of the [p.474] birthplace, and these were the four quarters. Mazzaroth then is first-named from the birthplace of the beginning, formed of the four quarters of the Great Bear, where we find the star Mizar in the tail or Mest-ru. Moreover the Hebrew terminal in תורזמ, represents the aft of the four quarters, and Mitzr-aft is the Mitzr of the four quarters, which belonged either to the constellation or the circle of the Great Bear before Mazzaroth had been extended to the circle of the signs and the four quarters of the solar zodiac. The moon is said to complete its hours (make its dual lunation) in arbati miskriti, or four quarters. The division of the circle of the constellation into quarters is marked in the Umazzir for ‘He divided’ the year into the twelve months. The Maz-arta, a watch, was then derived from the division of the night or circle of the stars into quarters. A watch was a piece of time long before it was a timepiece.

In one of the twelve romances of mythology, as the Assyrian version of the ancient legends may be termed, in the sixth tablet of the story of Izdubar, the god Anu is described as creating a bull at the request of Ishtar, who is desirous of being revenged on the solar hero who resisted her blandishments. Ishtar with her two attendants (a form of the two divine sisters) leads the bull against the city of Erech. With this bull Izdubar and his companion Heabani struggle; Heabani holding it by the head and tail, while Izdubar pierces the animal with his sword. This subject is represented on the cylinders where we see the god or hero fighting with the bull. Sometimes two persons are seen in conflict with two bull-beings, and these two bulls correspond to the double-headed bull of Egypt, whose mythology will help us here as elsewhere.

The bull, like the crocodile of the west, was made into an image of the swallower, the mouth of Hades, the Kr-p-Ru, Kherp-ru, or Cerberus. The earth that swallows up the sun and the souls in the west is described in certain passages of the Book of Hades as a two-headed bull which swallowed them in the west to reproduce them in the east. ‘Honour to the soul which was swallowed by the double bull,’ says the same text, ‘the god (Ra) rests in what he has created.’ The mummies standing waiting in their porch cry to the sun-god, ‘Open the earth! Traverse Hades and sky! Dissipate our darkness! O Ra, come to us! The earth is open to Ra.’ The swallowing earth being typified by the bull will serve to explain the subject of Mithras slaying the bull, which it was impossible to read until we knew what it was the bull represented. The bull being also a well known symbol of the sun, and Mithras a solar god, it was impossible to see how Mithras, the sun personified, could be slaying the sun. The Egyptian symbolism explains both the Assyrian and the Mithraic. The sun is in Scorpio, but he enters the underworld as the destined [p.475] conqueror of the devouring Earth, or comes into conflict with the bulli. The great mountain of Mul-Gelal, the glory of the mountains, the mountain of the west where the sun set, is said in an Akkadian inscription to lie like a buffalo in repose. That will serve for an image of the bull, the earlier cow of the west, or crocodile, or whale. In the Akkadian Magical Texts the gate of Hades is kept by the bull who is invoked, ‘Oh bull, very great bull, which opens to the interior. The entrance to the tomb is thy act; the lady with the magic wand—Nin-gis-zida, a title of the goddess Nin-ki-gal—fashioned thee for eternity.’ The station is at the boundaries, the limits which fix the division between heaven and earth, where the sun entered the underworld of the souls, the mouth of the swallower, whether considered as an animal, a fish, or the gaping grave.

A passage is quoted by Lenormant from the inscriptions to this effect, ‘afterwards they lead the bull into the Bit-Mummutu,’ with the remark, ‘It seems to me that it is connected with the word mummu, chaos, Hebrew המהמ, confusion; it would then be the abode of confusion, the state of chaos, which is a very suitable name for the gloomy and infernal region.’ But as the Akkadian name of Hades, Gi-umuna, is identical with the Egyptian Ki-amen, the hidden land of the interior, and as the mamit can be identified as the mummy-type, the Hebrew תוממ, it seems more probable that the Bit-Mummutu is the house of the dead, who are called the mum (or mummies) in Egyptian. Also the mum or mam , a name for the crossing or passage, precedes the form of am for the west or mouth of the Ament. The bull is a personification of the swallowing earth, hence an emblem at the gate of the mummy-house of Hades.

A curious figure is mentioned on the tablets and called the assinnu. In the descent of Ishtar to Hades the god Hea creates a sort of phantom figure, or he takes the figure assinnu, breathes life into it, and sends it on an errand to Hades. Talbot rendered the Assinnu by the ‘figure of a man of clay,’ Lenormant by the ‘phantom of a black man.’ But the Assinnu is comparatively common. We have it in the English scin of the dead, a phantom; also swyn in Welsh, as a charm; zona, Cornish, to charm; the tseen, Chinese, a demon; the asna, Sanskrit, a demon; aasan or usun, Arabic, a typical image or idol; sona, Biafada (African), an idol or sacred image; and ziney, Wolof (African), for the devil. The hieroglyphics will show us the character, shape, and colour of the image. Ssenu means a typical figure. San is an image, and the word signifies to charm, preserve, and save. Ssenu and sena mean to breathe, and the ssenu is an image of breath. Possibly the Assyrian as-sinnu includes the as as statue or type, and sena for breath or breathing. The [p.476] sennu itself is a black statue, and as an image of breath or a breathing image it is a variant of the noose sign of life. The Assinnu was black; it is called Namir and Khamir. Na is coloured or black in Egyptian. The Na people, or Nahsi, are negroid, and kham is also black.

The black Assinnu then is identical with the black doll of the hieroglyphics, which is an image of life in the underworld, or, as we say, of death, the shadow of life, hence its blackness. The sennu is portrayed by the side of Atum, the god of the lower world, who equates with Hea in the male solar triad.

On the death of a righteous man they ‘bring a khisibta from the heavenly treasury; they bring a sisbu from their lofty storehouse; into the precious khisibta they pour bright liquor. That righteous man, may he now rise on high! May he be bright as that sisbu; like pure silver may his garment be shining white.’ The sisbu agrees with the ssheba , a life-giving image, the mummy-figure which was carried round at the feast when the guests were told to look on it as the type of immortality, and rejoice because they also were immortal. Sesh means to pass, and ba is to be or become a soul, hence the ssheba. Khisibta renders the Egyptian khesbet for blue, the lapis lazuli symbol of heaven and of eternal truth. Khesbet or khisba is lapis lazuli, the hard blue stone and image of solid heaven, the throne of Ra in the highest heaven, like the Hebrew ‘paved work of a sapphire stone, as it were the body of heaven in its clearness.’ This was the foundation-stone of the other world, the stepping-stone of the southern height at the threshold of the door of heaven.

The hill was the first lik, or ark of the living and the dead. Hence the typical burial-place in the Ritual. The mountain-land as the ur-ka, ar-ka or aru-ka, the land of the lofty region, supplied the first form of the ark in the cave or the circle on the mount; the Ark safe from the waters and easily defended. This preceded the ark-cities like eruk and rhagae, which were built on the model of the ark or aru-ka

Nu signifies come, descend. In Akkadian as in Egyptian, nu is no, not, the sign of negation; and the same word denotes the image, or to image. So the nu monogram for zalam (Ass.) signifies an image or picture. Nu is the earlier nun (from nnu), the type, likeness, portrait, and nu-nu is the little boy, the ninny.’ The nunu as child is the elder Horus, who was always the child, the little one, the nursling and ninny of the mother.

iw titi [trampling] / iw aha [combat] / iw htp [peace] – in the hbbt [primeval ocean] waret
djeba in wetjeset-neter attacked by snake
pth comes from duat to protect it
pth made pth-nwyt-water after the snake
sbht-enclosure and channel built in consequence
channel filled with mw-water
shelter [nht] created for pth 5×15 cubits
mansion of isden [which had been planned] is built
the shebtiw build a sbty-enclosure
the hbbt receded and pay-lands emerged
pay-lands called sbnt-place wherein was the dd-pillar
crew of the falcon arrives and the shebtiw sail away
a temple is the built in wetjeset-neter

Temple of the Mansion of Ms-nht [by Ptah / seat of the 2 gods Re & ancestor Tanen]
2 temples of falcon [wetjeset-neter, djeba]
2 temples of sun-god [place for piercing, mansion of ms-nht]
Shebtiw from Neref worshipped in the Mansion of the Ram
Made the poy-lands for his Bw-wr [Great Place]
st-wrt [Great Seat – named by Thoth]
Djeba in Wetjeset-Neter
niwt [primeval domain] Blessed Island, Hareoty
Seat of the First Occasion [st n sp tpy]
sbht-enclosure and channel
nht – shelter for protection 5x15khet
sbty – enclosure
hcy-wr [great primeval mound]
bw-wr [great place / territory of the circuit]
bw-hbbt [place of the primeval water] Waret
pay-lands = snbt-place
inb – vast enclosure [outer enclosure of Re]
ges-waret [landing point of the Shebtiw]
ibn-wr [Enclosure of the Eldest]
hwt-enclosure of the Earthmaker [Tanen / Ir Ta] / Mansion [hwt] of Isden
tit-wrt [great Mound] of Heter-hr [mound of the radiant]
great plain of bja on which the gods stood in the northern sky
the mound of the two sycamores of the flood-land
island of the akhet dwellers
island of the just
hwt-ntr [mansion of the God]
iat mound existed before niwt

the first enclosure of the falcon was constructed on the enclosure of the earthmaker
sbht-enclosure is separate from the enclosure [sbty] in poy-lands and is encircled by mw-water in a channel.

The Thebans, as well as the Thessalians and the Athenians, had also their story of a flood: nor is this any thing more than might be naturally expected; for their city, like the Egyptian Thebes, received its name from the superstitious veneration of Theba or the bovine Ark. Ogyges, the supposed son of Neptune and Alistra, was esteemed the most ancient sovereign of Beotia: and in his time a great deluge was thought to have occurred, which Varro ascribes to an inundation of the sea.’ This fable, though it relates to the Noetic flood, was brought, like many other of the Greek fables, from Egypt: for the Beotian Thebes and the Beotian Ogyges are a mere copy of the Egyptian Thebes and the Egyptian Ogyges. Accordingly, Tzetzes tells us, that Ogyges was king of the Egyptian Thebes; of that Thebes, which alone arose above the water, when in the days of Menes the rest of the country was one great marsh. He further tells us, that Cadmus came from this more ancient Thebes, that he transferred the name to the city which he founded in Beotia, and that from Ogyges he called its gates Ogygian. With respect to the name of Thebes, he informs us, that it was borrowed from Theba the daughter of Jupiter and the wife of Ogyges, who flourished, according to Lycus, immediately after the flood of Deucalion: and he adds, that in the Syriac language Theba signifies a cow; whence originated the fable of Cadmus being led by a cow to the scite of his new city.1

It is not difficult to decypher this legend. Ogyges, who lived at the time of the flood, is Noah: and his allegorical wife Theba, from whom the two cities of that name were called, is the Ark, which the Hebrews and Phenicians and Chaldeans denominated Theba, and which was universally symbolized by a cow or heifer.

Hence we may account for another fable, in which Theba is made the wife of Corybas and the mother of the Samothracian Corybantes or Cabiri.’ These, as their whole history sufficiently shews, were diluvian gods: they were made, consequently, the children of Theba or the Ark.

In fine, the Egyptian goddess Theba was the same as Isis or Argo or Baris; her husband Ogyges was no other than Osiris; and the deluge of Ogyges must clearly be identified with the deluge of Phoroneus: for Clemens Alexandrinus tells us, that Phoroneus and Ogyges were contemporaries, and that the deluge of Ogyges happened in the days of Phoroneus, who was nevertheless reported to be the first man and the father of the human race.’

The Corybantes or Cabiri, who were sometimes thought to be the children of Theba, were worshipped in Crete under the title of Cureies, Id’ei Dactyli, or Tdchines. They were equally venerated in Rhodes: whence, in exact accordance with their general character, we find a Cretan or Rhodian legend of a partial deluge immediately connected with them.

Nonnus informs us, that they were the sons of Neptune: and Diodorus, what amounts to the same thing, says, that they were the offspring of the sea. He likewise tells us, that Neptune was committed to their care when an infant, and that they educated him in conjunction with Caphira or Cabira the daughter of the ocean.1 Cabira is the same as Theba or the sea-born great mother: and the infancy of Neptune is the infancy of Osiris, Helius, Bacchus, Jupiter, and the other diluvian gods. Noah was thought to have been born from the Ark as from a mother: hence he was represented as an infant, sometimes literally exposed on the ocean in an ark, and sometimes floating upon the mysterious aquatic lotos which among the Hindoos is avowedly a type of the ship Argha or Argo.

Now these Telchines, thus allied to the Ocean, were reckoned magicians, who could produce clouds and rain at pleasure. They first inhabited Rhodes; w here having foretold a deluge, they left the island and were scattered into various regions of the world. The flood punctually took place according to their prediction; and a few persons only escaped, among whom were the sons of Jupiter so famous in Cretan story.’

In this legend we may easily perceive, through the disguise of local appropriation, a very distinct reference to the monitory prophecy of Noah and to the dispersion of his descendants from the plains of Shinar. Jupiter occupies the place of the patriarch; and his children, who escape from the deluge, that of the Noetic family. Nor is this inconsistent with his character: for he is said to have been nursed, while an infant, by doves on the summit of mount Ida, which, like the Hindoo Ida-vratta or Meru, was a transcript of Ararat; and he is feigned to have been at once the father and the lover of that Theba, who was the wife of the dihivian Ogyges. By her he was the parent of Egyptus and Danaus, Danaus being the brother of Egyptus.1 But this Danaus was the navigator of the Argo; which in Egypt was the ship of Osiris, in Greece the ship of Jason, and in Hindostan the ship of Siva.1

3. Theba was sometimes reckoned the daughter of Cilix, the brother of Cadmus and the reputed father of the Cilicians: and then it was, that she is said to be the mother of the Corybantes or Cabiri.’ As she is thus transported into Cilicia, though (as her relationship to Cadmus shews) in palpable connection with the theology of Egypt and Beotia, we shall find a story of a local deluge at Tarsus.

The Tarsians, in their account of this catastrophe, asserted, that, when the waters began to retire, the tops of the Tauric mountains, at the feet of which stood Tarsus, first appeared. Hence it acquired the name of Polis Tersia or the city of dryness; which was afterwards, if we may believe the Greeks who delighted to resolve > every appellation into their own language* corrupted into Tarsus. In its immediate vicinity another tradition prevailed, which has evidently been borrowed from the emission of the Noetic raven. A neighbouring town, called Mallus, was supposed to have received its denomination from the circumstance of a raven’s having brought a lock of wool there. * The Tauric mountains, which rose above their city, were the ridge, to which the Tarsians, in the common spirit of local appropriation, fixed the appulse of the Ark. There was another ridge, bearing the same name and similarly connected with the history of the deluge, which extended from eastern Armenia into Bactriana. The real appellation, as it is still accurately preserved by the natives of the country, is not Tauris, as the Greeks wrote it, but Tabris or Tebriz or Tabaris. This word, in perfect agreement with the Cilician tradition, denotes the place of the Baris: but the Baris was the same as Theba or Argha or the Ark.

In Egypt, the transmigrating patriarch was denominated Osiris; and :the younger god Horus was esteemed his offspring: but this descent is purely mythological: for, as Osiris and Horus are alike declared to be the Sun -in their astronomical capacity; so, in their human capacity, they are each plainly the great father. Hence we find a very strong resemblance between •their several legends. If Horus be constrained by Typhon to take refuge in a floating island; Osiris is similarly compelled by him to enter into a floating ark. If Horus be reputed to surfer death and afterwards to be restored to life; Osiris is thought to have experienced a perfectly analogous death and revival. If Isis wanders over the world in quest of Horus; she makes exactly the same search for the lost Osiris. If she carefully collects the scattered limbs of Horus, and afterwards reanimates his at length united frame; she performs also for the murdered Osiris the self-same good offices. If Horus be torn into seven pieces by the Titans; Osiris is similarly torn by the Titans into fourteen pieces, which nurhber is the mere reduplicate of seven. Thus, their enemies are the same: the calamities, which they endure, are the same: and their final triumph is the same. They plainly, in short, constitute bat a single character: and this character was divided between two deities, because it was viewed under two somewhat different lights; yet one person was still shadowed out by each.

Horus was represented as an infant, cither sailing in a ship, or floating in the golden cup of the lotos, or seated on a crocodile, or swathed (as in the Bem bine table) after the manner of the mummies: and he seems designed to typify the diluvian god, as born again from the Ark like a child from its mother, as returning to life after the period of his mystical death, as entering upon a new state of existence in a new world, and as finally triumphant over every attack of the ocean; designed, that is to say, more peculiarly to exhibit the postdiluvian, or mystically regenerated, great father. • Osiris, on the contrary, appears to be the same person considered more generally; he is Noah in every part of his character, Noah both antediluvian and postdiluvian. Thus, in one point of view, Noah the antediluvian, when considered with reference to the second great father’s existence after the flood, precedes him; and Is then the parent and husband of the Ark, that mysterious mother both of the renovated world, and of the great father himself: as such, he is Osiris, the consort of Isis and the sire of the infant Horus. But, in another point of view, Noah the postdiluvian, when considered with reference to the great father’s existence before the flood, succeeds him; and, proceeding from, the womb of the Ark wliich is the great father’s consort, displays himself in the character of their son: as such, he is Horus or the younger Osiris, the offspring of Isis and the elder Osiris.

Some refinement of this nature, which indeed was the almost inevitable consequence of the various degrees of relationship sustained by the great father towards the great mother, may be traced with sufficient clearness in the avowed notions of the Egyptians themselves. Plutarch tells us, that they esteemed Osiris as the beginning, Isis as the receptacle, and, Horus as the completion:’ and he speaks of Isis, as being the mundane house or habitation of Horus, the scat of generation, the nurse of the world, the universal recipient.1 SimpliGius ascribes the same character to the Syrian fish^goddess Derceto or Atargatis: for he represents her, as being the place or habitation of the gods; and he adds, that, like the Egyptian Isis with whom she ought doubtless to be identified, she contained, inclosed within her womb, what he calls the specialities or proper natures of many deities.’ Such phraseology, when the history of. Osiris and Horus is considered, must relate to the Ark; though, as the great father was Adam no less than Noah, without excluding the Earth or the greater World which was ever associated in the minds of the ancient hierophants with .the Ark or. the smaller World.

Osiris then is Noah anterior to the deluge; yet, as his history shews, , without excluding any other part of that patriarch’s character: while Horus, the mythological son of Osiris and Isis, represents to us the same person, born as an jufant from the womb of the Ark, and finally prevailing over the ravages of the ocean.

1. Agreeably to such an arrangement, Horus, as we have seen, is described as taking refuge in a floating island from the* fury of Typhon or the sea, and as afterwards expelling his enemy and as assuming that sovereignty which the overwhelming monster had for a season usurped. He is also said to have been slain by the Titans, and to have been left by them for dead in the water; where, his mother Isis, at length finding him, by her divine power restored him to life and immortality. *

These legends both relate to the same event: they are merely told in a somewhat different manner. The floating island shadowed out the Ark: whence Typhon, by whom Horus is driven into it, is rightly declared to be the personified ocean. In a similar manner, the Titans were the whole race of antediluvians: and they are generally represented, as being in arms against the navicular hero-gods, but as being finally subdued by them and as being then plunged into the watery depths of the great central abyss. Yet there is an evident distinction made between the impious Titans and certain others of a very different character who yet bore the same appellation: for Horus or Apollo, Cronus or Saturn, Hercules, Prometheus, and Helius, as being fundamentally one person, were all equally called Titan; and we find a particular family of Titans, which, with their parent Cronus at their head, amounted precisely to eight persons.* These are doubtless the eight great gods of Egypt: and the distinction is made, because the whole race of antediluvians comprehended the Noetic family as well as their irreclaimable contemporaries. The supposed death of Horus then by the hands of the Titans is closely allied to Typhon’s inveterate pursuit of him. The Ark was esteemed a coffin; and the inclosure of Noah within it, his death: hence arose the various fables of the death and burial of the principal ship-god. Thus dead, Isis finds Horus in the midst of the waters; and forthwith bestows upon him that new life, which Noah received when he quitted his floating coffin the Ark.

2. The fabled persecution, which Osiris experiences from Typhon, is evidently the same, as the exactly parallel persecution, from which Horus is compelled to take refuge in the floating island Chemmis. Substitute only the ark of Osiris for the island of Horus; and the two stories are palpably identified. The very curious legend of Osiris has been detailed at large by Plutarch. Its substance is, as follows.

Typhoa, we are told, conspired against this hero-god of the Egyptians with an intention to slay him and to usurp the whole of his dominions. For this purpose he contrived an ark of extraordinary workmanship, and persuaded him to enter into it. The credulous deity having assented, Typhon shut him up, and cast him into the Nile which was mystically denominated the ocean. Thus inclosed in what was deemed his coffin, the winds and waves conveyed him as one dead to Phenicia. Isis however rambled over all the world in search of him: and, having at length found the lost object of her tenderness, she succeeded in liberating him from his confinement and in restoring him to life.1 Here we perceive an ancient personage driven into an ark by the violence of the sea, which for a time occupies the whole of his dominions: and we learn, that, as his entrance into it was viewed in the light of -death, so his liberation from it was considered as a revival or as a return from Hades.

The ark of Osiris, in which he was set afloat by his adversary Typhon, was thought by the Egyptians to have been constructed in the form of a lunette or a boat with two similar extremities.* Its shape was in short that of the modern life-boat, which resembles the lunar crescent floating on the water: and it was adopted, because the Moon in her first or last quarter was made the astronomical symbol of the Ark. Osiris accordingly was sometimes said to have entered into this luniform ark, and at other times was fabled to have entered into the Moon: and the Egyptians regularly commemorated by yearly festivals each of these mysterious entrances.’ But they both alluded to the same event, the entrance of Noah into the Ark: for the Moon, into which Osiris was thought to have entered, was no other than the wooden lunette, the ark (as Plutarch fairly speaks out) shaped like the Moon, within which Typhon inclosed him and then set him afloat on the water.

“The environmental stakes in this case are very high: The wetlands involved are the remains of the only inland sea delta in Europe. This delta survived since the last Ice Age, when the Pannon Sea filled the Carpathian Basin. Some 400 unique species have survived from what used to be this Pannon sea delta, and what today is called the Szigetkoz (“the region of a thousand islands”–in Hungarian), where, since the rerouting, not a single island remains,–as there is no water.” Bela Liptak, Yale

In brief, the influence of the 8200 calBP event is most easily recognised on Cyprus and Central Anatolia. Here, the large and long-flourishing settlement at Çatalhöyük-East was abruptly deserted around 8200 calBP. We speculate that this was most likely due to irregularities in the water-supply of this large settlement. Following 8200 calBP, the site was re-occupied, but with a shift of the settlement by c. 200 m to a new position (Çatalhöyük-West). This settlement shift marks the beginning of the Pottery Neolithic (sensu strictu) in Central Anatolia. It is further intriguing that many other major archaeological sites in the Eastern Mediterranean are alternatively either first occupied at c. 8200 calBP (in North-West Anatolia: Hoca Çeşme IV); in Greece: Nea Nikomedeia, Achilleion, Sesklo; in Bulgaria: Ovcarovo-Platoto) or else deserted (in Cyprus: Khirokitia and Kalavassos-Tenta). Conversely, in the regions under study we have not been able to identify any sites with clear stratigraphic evidence for a continuous settlement extending through the 8200 calBP event. It appears remarkable, that – following the (more or less) simultaneous desertion of Khirokitia and Kalavassos-Tenta around 8200 calBP – the island of Cyprus was apparently deserted and remained uninhabited for more than 1500 years. We furthermore observe that the major neolithic tell settlement at Mersin in Cilicia (Yumuktepe) was deserted during the time of the 8.2 ka calBP event – and was immediately reoccupied following the event. Major changes in cultural trajectories are also to be observed in North Syria (e.g. Tell Sabi Abyad)

Our observations first of all highlight the major weakness of previous Neolithisation models, all of which lack any plausible mechanism to explain the unexpectedly rapid population movements in Central Anatolia around 8200 calBP (i.e. the transition from the Late Neolithic to the Early Chalcolithic). With the notable exception of the clearly more flexible approach of Mehmet Özdoğan, according to which the Neolithisation spread from within a “large cultural formation zone”, none of the other diffusion models correctly describe the speed with which the earliest farmers moved into South- East Europe. For example, if we assume that the migration may be described by frequent relocation of the settlements over short distances, which is the base of the calculations put forward by Ammermann and Cavalli- Sforza, then the Neolithic “wave-of-advance” can only proceed at average speeds less than 1 km/year. The major limiting factors are food production and birth rate. However, on the basis of the site chronologies and geographic distances described in our paper, we conclude that the dispersion speeds are more in the order of 1000-5000 km per 100-200 years. As such, the neolithic population is expanding at a factor of more than ten times more rapidly (depending on the assumed settlement area) than can be explained by traditional diffusion models. Such expansion rates are well above all limits based on realistic human growth rate calculations. Indeed, all such calculations lose their meaning – vis-a-vis the causal mechanisms for migration now indicated by the 8200 calBP aridity scenario. The farmers would be forced to migrate, quasi-immediately and with few alternatives, if they wished to survive yet another year of crop failures and encroaching famine.

Such a scenario of sudden population relocation is not unusual in the Eastern Mediterranean. It was witnessed before in the southern Levant, when all of Palestine and the Jordan Valley were suddenly abandoned c. 7500 calBC, with the populations moving up onto the Jordanian plateau . Due to the major drop in the availability of archaeological charcoals dating to the interval 7500 and 7100 calBC (Fig.), we now have indications that similar processes may indeed be acting simultaneously in Turkey. But we have argued previously that such migration processes could well be caused by over-population and over-stress on local ecological habitats, and we are quite reluctant to any potential overestimation of the effects of climate-forcing on prehistoric societies. However – due the sheer magnitude of the 8200 calBP climate event – in the present paper we consider it necessary to envisage a primary climatic background to many of the societal responses we observe in this time range.

Cso’rsz, as the shepherds tell, was the gallant son of the King of the Transylvanian Alps, whose treasures of gold and salt are greater than those of all the kings and princesses in the world. CsOrsz heard of the celestial beauty of Deli Bab, the daughter of the King of the Southern Sea, and his heart was inflamed with love for her. He therefore sent his heralds from his Alps down to the borders of the Southern Sea, with loads of the most costly gifts of salt and gold, and sued for the hand, of the lovely Deli Bab. But the proud king of the sea despised the kings of the earth, and said that he never would grant the daughter of the sea to the son of the Alps, until he came with a fleet down from his mountains, to convey his bride by water to his palace, as her feet were too delicate to be exposed to the rough stones of the earth. But the heralds, convinced of the power of their king, threw the bridal ring and the presents of gold and salt into the sea, which from this time became rich in salt, and having thus sealed the betrothing, returned to their prince. In despair about the desire of the king of the sea, and ignorant how to comply with his conditions, Csorsz called on the devil, and entreated his aid. The devil without delay put two buffaloes to his glowing plough, and in a single night dug the canal from Transylvania to the Danube, and from thence down to the sea. Csorsz speedily had a fleet constructed, and joyfully steered down to the Southern Sea to take his bride. Her princely father gave up his daughter with deep regret ; however, he was bound by his word, as the new diplomacy was not yet invented, and the pledges of monarchs were still, even in those parts, considered sacred. But the beautiful bride was sorry to leave her cool palace of crystal, her innumerable toys of shells and pearls, and even the monsters of the deep, who had served her with unbounded devotion. She promised not to forget their home, and often to visit her father and sisters in summer, when the hot sunbeams might prove too intense for her on the dry earth. Csorsz, with festive songs and merry sounds, conveyed his beloved up the canal. Deli Bab was delighted with the mountains, woods, fields, and meadows, which swiftly passed her ; she was highly amused with the objects wholly new to her sight. But when by chance she looked backwards, she noticed with terror that behind the fleet the waters dried up in the canal, and that thus the return to her father’s realm became impossible. She never could feel at home in the gold and salt vaults of the Transylvanian mountains ; the heavy masses of the Alps depressed her soul; the wintry snow chilled her thoughts; the burning beams of the summer sun melted her into tears. She never laughed, and always dreamt of her transparent abode in the sea. The love of the princely son of the Alps remained sterile; Deli Bab was childless. She melted away with longing, and was transformed into the Fata Morgana, a dreamy appearance of the sea, which vanishes away as soon as you approach, and which in Hungary yet bears the name of the fair Deli Bab. The remains of the devil’s canal are still called Csorsz arka the canal of Csorsz. Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady, vol. ii., p. 225.

The sun was beginning to beat upon the fields, fresh risen into the vault of heaven from the slow still currents of deep Oceanus, when the two armies met. They could hardly recognise their dead, but they washed the clotted gore from off them, shed tears over them, and lifted them upon their waggons. Priam had forbidden the Trojans to wail aloud, so they heaped their dead sadly and silently upon the pyre, and having burned them went back to the city of Ilius. The Achaeans in like manner heaped their dead sadly and silently on the pyre, and having burned them went back to their ships.

Now in the twilight when it was not yet dawn, chosen bands of the Achaeans were gathered round the pyre and built one barrow that was raised in common for all, and hard by this they built a high wall to shelter themselves and their ships; they gave it strong gates that there might be a way through them for their chariots, and close outside it they dug a trench deep and wide, and they planted it within with stakes.

Thus did the Achaeans toil, and the gods, seated by the side of Jove the lord of lightning, marvelled at their great work; but Neptune, lord of the earthquake, spoke, saying, “Father Jove, what mortal in the whole world will again take the gods into his counsel? See you not how the Achaeans have built a wall about their ships and driven a trench all round it, without offering hecatombs to the gods? The The fame of this wall will reach as far as dawn itself, and men will no longer think anything of the one which Phoebus Apollo and myself built with so much labour for Laomedon.”

Jove was displeased and answered, “What, O shaker of the earth, are you talking about? A god less powerful than yourself might be alarmed at what they are doing, but your fame reaches as far as dawn itself. Surely when the Achaeans have gone home with their ships, you can shatter their wall and Ring it into the sea; you can cover the beach with sand again, and the great wall of the Achaeans will then be utterly effaced.”

Thus did they converse, and by sunset the work of the Achaeans was completed; they then slaughtered oxen at their tents and got their supper. Many ships had come with wine from Lemnos, sent by Euneus the son of Jason, born to him by Hypsipyle. The son of Jason freighted them with ten thousand measures of wine, which he sent specially to the sons of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus. From this supply the Achaeans bought their wine, some with bronze, some with iron, some with hides, some with whole heifers, and some again with captives. They spread a goodly banquet and feasted the whole night through, as also did the Trojans and their allies in the city. But all the time Jove boded them ill and roared with his portentous thunder. Pale fear got hold upon them, and they spilled the wine from their cups on to the ground, nor did any dare drink till he had made offerings to the most mighty son of Saturn. Then they laid themselves down to rest and enjoyed the boon of sleep.

So the son of Menoetius was attending to the hurt of Eurypylus within the tent, but the Argives and Trojans still fought desperately, nor were the trench and the high wall above it, to keep the Trojans in check longer. They had built it to protect their ships, and had dug the trench all round it that it might safeguard both the ships and the rich spoils which they had taken, but they had not offered hecatombs to the gods. It had been built without the consent of the immortals, and therefore it did not last. So long as Hector lived and Achilles nursed his anger, and so long as the city of Priam remained untaken, the great wall of the Achaeans stood firm; but when the bravest of the Trojans were no more, and many also of the Argives, though some were yet left alive when, moreover, the city was sacked in the tenth year, and the Argives had gone back with their ships to their own country- then Neptune and Apollo took counsel to destroy the wall, and they turned on to it the streams of all the rivers from Mount Ida into the sea, Rhesus, Heptaporus, Caresus, Rhodius, Grenicus, Aesopus, and goodly Scamander, with Simois, where many a shield and helm had fallen, and many a hero of the race of demigods had bitten the dust. Phoebus Apollo turned the mouths of all these rivers together and made them flow for nine days against the wall, while Jove rained the whole time that he might wash it sooner into the sea. Neptune himself, trident in hand, surveyed the work and threw into the sea all the foundations of beams and stones which the Achaeans had laid with so much toil; he made all level by the mighty stream of the Hellespont, and then when he had swept the wall away he spread a great beach of sand over the place where it had been. This done he turned the rivers back into their old courses.

This was what Neptune and Apollo were to do in after time; but as yet battle and turmoil were still raging round the wall till its timbers rang under the blows that rained upon them. The Argives, cowed by the scourge of Jove, were hemmed in at their ships in fear of Hector the mighty minister of Rout, who as heretofore fought with the force and fury of a whirlwind. As a lion or wild boar turns fiercely on the dogs and men that attack him, while these form solid wall and shower their javelins as they face him- his courage is all undaunted, but his high spirit will be the death of him; many a time does he charge at his pursuers to scatter them, and they fall back as often as he does so- even so did Hector go about among the host exhorting his men, and cheering them on to cross the trench.

But the horses dared not do so, and stood neighing upon its brink, for the width frightened them. They could neither jump it nor cross it, for it had overhanging banks all round upon either side, above which there were the sharp stakes that the sons of the Achaeans had planted so close and strong as a defence against all who would assail it; a horse, therefore, could not get into it and draw his chariot after him, but those who were on foot kept trying their very utmost. Then Polydamas went up to Hector and said, “Hector, and you other captains of the Trojans and allies, it is madness for us to try and drive our horses across the trench; it will be very hard to cross, for it is full of sharp stakes, and beyond these there is the wall. Our horses therefore cannot get down into it, and would be of no use if they did; moreover it is a narrow place and we should come to harm. If, indeed, great Jove is minded to help the Trojans, and in his anger will utterly destroy the Achaeans, I would myself gladly see them perish now and here far from Argos; but if they should rally and we are driven back from the ships pell-mell into the trench there will be not so much as a man get back to the city to tell the tale. Now, therefore, let us all do as I say; let our squires hold our horses by the trench, but let us follow Hector in a body on foot, clad in full armour, and if the day of their doom is at hand the Achaeans will not be able to withstand us.”

Thus spoke Polydamas and his saying pleased Hector, who sprang in full armour to the ground, and all the other Trojans, when they saw him do so, also left their chariots. Each man then gave his horses over to his charioteer in charge to hold them ready for him at the trench. Then they formed themselves into companies, made themselves ready, and in five bodies followed their leaders. Those that went with Hector and Polydamas were the bravest and most in number, and the most determined to break through the wall and fight at the ships. Cebriones was also joined with them as third in command, for Hector had left his chariot in charge of a less valiant soldier. The next company was led by Paris, Alcathous, and Agenor; the third by Helenus and Deiphobus, two sons of Priam, and with them was the hero Asius- Asius the son of Hyrtacus, whose great black horses of the breed that comes from the river Selleis had brought him from Arisbe. Aeneas the valiant son of Anchises led the fourth; he and the two sons of Antenor, Archelochus and Acamas, men well versed in all the arts of war. Sarpedon was captain over the allies, and took with him Glaucus and Asteropaeus whom he deemed most valiant after himself- for he was far the best man of them all. These helped to array one another in their ox-hide shields, and then charged straight at the Danaans, for they felt sure that they would not hold out longer and that they should themselves now fall upon the ships.

The rest of the Trojans and their allies now followed the counsel of Polydamas but Asius son of Hyrtacus would not leave his horses and his esquire behind him; in his foolhardiness he took them on with him towards the ships, nor did he fail to come by his end in consequence. Nevermore was he to return to wind-beaten Ilius, exulting in his chariot and his horses; ere he could do so, death of ill-omened name had overshadowed him and he had fallen by the spear of Idomeneus the noble son of Deucalion. He had driven towards the left wing of the ships, by which way the Achaeans used to return with their chariots and horses from the plain. Hither he drove and found the gates with their doors opened wide, and the great bar down- for the gatemen kept them open so as to let those of their comrades enter who might be flying towards the ships. Hither of set purpose did he direct his horses, and his men followed him with a loud cry, for they felt sure that the Achaeans would not hold out longer, and that they should now fall upon the ships. Little did they know that at the gates they should find two of the bravest chieftains, proud sons of the fighting Lapithae- the one, Polypoetes, mighty son of Pirithous, and the other Leonteus, peer of murderous Mars. These stood before the gates like two high oak trees upon the mountains, that tower from their wide-spreading roots, and year after year battle with wind and rain- even so did these two men await the onset of great Asius confidently and without flinching. The Trojans led by him and by Iamenus, Orestes, Adamas the son of Asius, Thoon and Oenomaus, raised a loud cry of battle and made straight for the wall, holding their shields of dry ox-hide above their heads; for a while the two defenders remained inside and cheered the Achaeans on to stand firm in the defence of their ships; when, however, they saw that the Trojans were attacking the wall, while the Danaans were crying out for help and being routed, they rushed outside and fought in front of the gates like two wild boars upon the mountains that abide the attack of men and dogs, and charging on either side break down the wood all round them tearing it up by the roots, and one can hear the clattering of their tusks, till some one hits them and makes an end of them- even so did the gleaming bronze rattle about their breasts, as the weapons fell upon them; for they fought with great fury, trusting to their own prowess and to those who were on the wall above them. These threw great stones at their assailants in defence of themselves their tents and their ships. The stones fell thick as the flakes of snow which some fierce blast drives from the dark clouds and showers down in sheets upon the earth- even so fell the weapons from the hands alike of Trojans and Achaeans. Helmet and shield rang out as the great stones rained upon them, and Asius the son of Hyrtacus in his dismay cried aloud and smote his two thighs. “Father Jove,” he cried, “of a truth you too are altogether given to lying. I made sure the Argive heroes could not withstand us, whereas like slim-waisted wasps, or bees that have their nests in the rocks by the wayside- they leave not the holes wherein they have built undefended, but fight for their little ones against all who would take them- even so these men, though they be but two, will not be driven from the gates, but stand firm either to slay or be slain.”

He spoke, but moved not the mind of Jove, whose counsel it then was to give glory to Hector. Meanwhile the rest of the Trojans were fighting about the other gates; I, however, am no god to be able to tell about all these things, for the battle raged everywhere about the stone wall as it were a fiery furnace. The Argives, discomfited though they were, were forced to defend their ships, and all the gods who were defending the Achaeans were vexed in spirit; but the Lapithae kept on fighting with might and main.

While they were busy stripping the armour from these heroes, the youths who were led on by Polydamas and Hector (and these were the greater part and the most valiant of those that were trying to break through the wall and fire the ships) were still standing by the trench, uncertain what they should do; for they had seen a sign from heaven when they had essayed to cross it- a soaring eagle that flew skirting the left wing of their host, with a monstrous blood-red snake in its talons still alive and struggling to escape. The snake was still bent on revenge, wriggling and twisting itself backwards till it struck the bird that held it, on the neck and breast; whereon the bird being in pain, let it fall, dropping it into the middle of the host, and then flew down the wind with a sharp cry. The Trojans were struck with terror when they saw the snake, portent of aegis-bearing Jove, writhing in the midst of them, and Polydamas went up to Hector and said, “Hector, at our councils of war you are ever given to rebuke me, even when I speak wisely, as though it were not well, forsooth, that one of the people should cross your will either in the field or at the council board; you would have them support you always: nevertheless I will say what I think will be best; let us not now go on to fight the Danaans at their ships, for I know what will happen if this soaring eagle which skirted the left wing of our with a monstrous blood-red snake in its talons (the snake being still alive) was really sent as an omen to the Trojans on their essaying to cross the trench. The eagle let go her hold; she did not succeed in taking it home to her little ones, and so will it be- with ourselves; even though by a mighty effort we break through the gates and wall of the Achaeans, and they give way before us, still we shall not return in good order by the way we came, but shall leave many a man behind us whom the Achaeans will do to death in defence of their ships. Thus would any seer who was expert in these matters, and was trusted by the people, read the portent.”

Hector looked fiercely at him and said, “Polydamas, I like not of your reading. You can find a better saying than this if you will. If, however, you have spoken in good earnest, then indeed has heaven robbed you of your reason. You would have me pay no heed to the counsels of Jove, nor to the promises he made me- and he bowed his head in confirmation; you bid me be ruled rather by the flight of wild-fowl. What care I whether they fly towards dawn or dark, and whether they be on my right hand or on my left? Let us put our trust rather in the counsel of great Jove, king of mortals and immortals. There is one omen, and one only- that a man should fight for his country. Why are you so fearful? Though we be all of us slain at the ships of the Argives you are not likely to be killed yourself, for you are not steadfast nor courageous. If you will. not fight, or would talk others over from doing so, you shall fall forthwith before my spear.”

With these words he led the way, and the others followed after with a cry that rent the air. Then Jove the lord of thunder sent the blast of a mighty wind from the mountains of Ida, that bore the dust down towards the ships; he thus lulled the Achaeans into security, and gave victory to Hector and to the Trojans, who, trusting to their own might and to the signs he had shown them, essayed to break through the great wall of the Achaeans. They tore down the breastworks from the walls, and overthrew the battlements; they upheaved the buttresses, which the Achaeans had set in front of the wall in order to support it; when they had pulled these down they made sure of breaking through the wall, but the Danaans still showed no sign of giving ground; they still fenced the battlements with their shields of ox-hide, and hurled their missiles down upon the foe as soon as any came below the wall.

The two Ajaxes went about everywhere on the walls cheering on the Achaeans, giving fair words to some while they spoke sharply to any one whom they saw to be remiss. “My friends,” they cried, “Argives one and all- good bad and indifferent, for there was never fight yet, in which all were of equal prowess- there is now work enough, as you very well know, for all of you. See that you none of you turn in flight towards the ships, daunted by the shouting of the foe, but press forward and keep one another in heart, if it may so be that Olympian Jove the lord of lightning will vouchsafe us to repel our foes, and drive them back towards the city.”

Thus did the two go about shouting and cheering the Achaeans on. As the flakes that fall thick upon a winter’s day, when Jove is minded to snow and to display these his arrows to mankind- he lulls the wind to rest, and snows hour after hour till he has buried the tops of the high mountains, the headlands that jut into the sea, the grassy plains, and the tilled fields of men; the snow lies deep upon the forelands, and havens of the grey sea, but the waves as they come rolling in stay it that it can come no further, though all else is wrapped as with a mantle so heavy are the heavens with snow- even thus thickly did the stones fall on one side and on the other, some thrown at the Trojans, and some by the Trojans at the Achaeans; and the whole wall was in an uproar.

Still the Trojans and brave Hector would not yet have broken down the gates and the great bar, had not Jove turned his son Sarpedon against the Argives as a lion against a herd of horned cattle. Before him he held his shield of hammered bronze, that the smith had beaten so fair and round, and had lined with ox hides which he had made fast with rivets of gold all round the shield; this he held in front of him, and brandishing his two spears came on like some lion of the wilderness, who has been long famished for want of meat and will dare break even into a well-fenced homestead to try and get at the sheep. He may find the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks with dogs and spears, but he is in no mind to be driven from the fold till he has had a try for it; he will either spring on a sheep and carry it off, or be hit by a spear from strong hand- even so was Sarpedon fain to attack the wall and break down its battlements. Then he said to Glaucus son of Hippolochus, “Glaucus, why in Lycia do we receive especial honour as regards our place at table? Why are the choicest portions served us and our cups kept brimming, and why do men look up to us as though we were gods? Moreover we hold a large estate by the banks of the river Xanthus, fair with orchard lawns and wheat-growing land; it becomes us, therefore, to take our stand at the head of all the Lycians and bear the brunt of the fight, that one may say to another, Our princes in Lycia eat the fat of the land and drink best of wine, but they are fine fellows; they fight well and are ever at the front in battle.’ My good friend, if, when we were once out of this fight, we could escape old age and death thenceforward and for ever, I should neither press forward myself nor bid you do so, but death in ten thousand shapes hangs ever over our heads, and no man can elude him; therefore let us go forward and either win glory for ourselves, or yield it to another.”

Glaucus heeded his saying, and the pair forthwith led on the host of Lycians. Menestheus son of Peteos was dismayed when he saw them, for it was against his part of the wall that they came- bringing destruction with them; he looked along the wall for some chieftain to support his comrades and saw the two Ajaxes, men ever eager for the fray, and Teucer, who had just come from his tent, standing near them; but he could not make his voice heard by shouting to them, so great an uproar was there from crashing shields and helmets and the battering of gates with a din which reached the skies. For all the gates had been closed, and the Trojans were hammering at them to try and break their way through them. Menestheus, therefore, sent Thootes with a message to Ajax. “Run, good Thootes,” said and call Ajax, or better still bid both come, for it will be all over with us here directly; the leaders of the Lycians are upon us, men who have ever fought desperately heretofore. But if the have too much on their hands to let them come, at any rate let Ajax son of Telamon do so, and let Teucer the famous bowman come with him.”

The messenger did as he was told, and set off running along the wall of the Achaeans. When he reached the Ajaxes he said to them, “Sirs, princes of the Argives, the son of noble Peteos bids you come to him for a while and help him. You had better both come if you can, or it will be all over with him directly; the leaders of the Lycians are upon him, men who have ever fought desperately heretofore; if you have too much on your hands to let both come, at any rate let Ajax son of Telamon do so, and let Teucer the famous bowman come with him.”

Great Ajax, son of Telamon, heeded the message, and at once spoke to the son of Oileus. “Ajax,” said he, “do you two, yourself and brave Lycomedes, stay here and keep the Danaans in heart to fight their hardest. I will go over yonder, and bear my part in the fray, but I will come back here at once as soon as I have given them the help they need.”

With this, Ajax son of Telamon set off, and Teucer his brother by the same father went also, with Pandion to carry Teucer’s bow. They went along inside the wall, and when they came to the tower where Menestheus was (and hard pressed indeed did they find him) the brave captains and leaders of the Lycians were storming the battlements as it were a thick dark cloud, fighting in close quarters, and raising the battle-cry aloud.

First, Ajax son of Telamon killed brave Epicles, a comrade of Sarpedon, hitting him with a jagged stone that lay by the battlements at the very top of the wall. As men now are, even one who is in the bloom of youth could hardly lift it with his two hands, but Ajax raised it high aloft and flung it down, smashing Epicles’ four-crested helmet so that the bones of his head were crushed to pieces, and he fell from the high wall as though he were diving, with no more life left in him. Then Teucer wounded Glaucus the brave son of Hippolochus as he was coming on to attack the wall. He saw his shoulder bare and aimed an arrow at it, which made Glaucus leave off fighting. Thereon he sprang covertly down for fear some of the Achaeans might see that he was wounded and taunt him. Sarpedon was stung with grief when he saw Glaucus leave him, still he did not leave off fighting, but aimed his spear at Alcmaon the son of Thestor and hit him. He drew his spear back again Alcmaon came down headlong after it with his bronzed armour rattling round him. Then Sarpedon seized the battlement in his strong hands, and tugged at it till it an gave way together, and a breach was made through which many might pass.

Ajax and Teucer then both of them attacked him. Teucer hit him with an arrow on the band that bore the shield which covered his body, but Jove saved his son from destruction that he might not fall by the ships’ sterns. Meanwhile Ajax sprang on him and pierced his shield, but the spear did not go clean through, though it hustled him back that he could come on no further. He therefore retired a little space from the battlement, yet without losing all his ground, for he still thought to cover himself with glory. Then he turned round and shouted to the brave Lycians saying, “Lycians, why do you thus fail me? For all my prowess I cannot break through the wall and open a way to the ships single-handed. Come close on behind me, for the more there are of us the better.”

The Lycians, shamed by his rebuke, pressed closer round him who was their counsellor their king. The Argives on their part got their men in fighting order within the wall, and there was a deadly struggle between them. The Lycians could not break through the wall and force their way to the ships, nor could the Danaans drive the Lycians from the wall now that they had once reached it. As two men, measuring-rods in hand, quarrel about their boundaries in a field that they own in common, and stickle for their rights though they be but in a mere strip, even so did the battlements now serve as a bone of contention, and they beat one another’s round shields for their possession. Many a man’s body was wounded with the pitiless bronze, as he turned round and bared his back to the foe, and many were struck clean through their shields; the wall and battlements were everywhere deluged with the blood alike of Trojans and of Achaeans. But even so the Trojans could not rout the Achaeans, who still held on; and as some honest hard-working woman weighs wool in her balance and sees that the scales be true, for she would gain some pitiful earnings for her little ones, even so was the fight balanced evenly between them till the time came when Jove gave the greater glory to Hector son of Priam, who was first to spring towards the wall of the Achaeans. As he did so, he cried aloud to the Trojans, “Up, Trojans, break the wall of the Argives, and fling fire upon their ships.”

Thus did he hound them on, and in one body they rushed straight at the wall as he had bidden them, and scaled the battlements with sharp spears in their hands. Hector laid hold of a stone that lay just outside the gates and was thick at one end but pointed at the other; two of the best men in a town, as men now are, could hardly raise it from the ground and put it on to a waggon, but Hector lifted it quite easily by himself, for the son of scheming Saturn made it light for him. As a shepherd picks up a ram’s fleece with one hand and finds it no burden, so easily did Hector lift the great stone and drive it right at the doors that closed the gates so strong and so firmly set. These doors were double and high, and were kept closed by two cross-bars to which there was but one key. When he had got close up to them, Hector strode towards them that his blow might gain in force and struck them in the middle, leaning his whole weight against them. He broke both hinges, and the stone fell inside by reason of its great weight. The portals re-echoed with the sound, the bars held no longer, and the doors flew open, one one way, and the other the other, through the force of the blow. Then brave Hector leaped inside with a face as dark as that of flying night. The gleaming bronze flashed fiercely about his body and he had tow spears in his hand. None but a god could have withstood him as he flung himself into the gateway, and his eyes glared like fire. Then he turned round towards the Trojans and called on them to scale the wall, and they did as he bade them- some of them at once climbing over the wall, while others passed through the gates. The Danaans then fled panic-stricken towards their ships, and all was uproar and confusion.

Meanwhile the earth-encircler roused the Achaeans, who were resting in the rear by the ships overcome at once by hard fighting and by grief at seeing that the Trojans had got over the wall in force. Tears began falling from their eyes as they beheld them, for they made sure that they should not escape destruction; but the lord of the earthquake passed lightly about among them and urged their battalions to the front.

First he went up to Teucer and Leitus, the hero Peneleos, and Thoas and Deipyrus; Meriones also and Antilochus, valiant warriors; all did he exhort. “Shame on you young Argives,” he cried, “it was on your prowess I relied for the saving of our ships; if you fight not with might and main, this very day will see us overcome by the Trojans. Of a truth my eyes behold a great and terrible portent which I had never thought to see- the Trojans at our ships- they, who were heretofore like panic-stricken hinds, the prey of jackals and wolves in a forest, with no strength but in flight for they cannot defend themselves. Hitherto the Trojans dared not for one moment face the attack of the Achaeans, but now they have sallied far from their city and are fighting at our very ships through the cowardice of our leader and the disaffection of the people themselves, who in their discontent care not to fight in defence of the ships but are being slaughtered near them. True, King Agamemnon son of Atreus is the cause of our disaster by having insulted the son of Peleus, still this is no reason why we should leave off fighting. Let us be quick to heal, for the hearts of the brave heal quickly. You do ill to be thus remiss, you, who are the finest soldiers in our whole army. I blame no man for keeping out of battle if he is a weakling, but I am indignant with such men as you are. My good friends, matters will soon become even worse through this slackness; think, each one of you, of his own honour and credit, for the hazard of the fight is extreme. Great Hector is now fighting at our ships; he has broken through the gates and the strong bolt that held them.”

Thus did the earth-encircler address the Achaeans and urge them on. Thereon round the two Ajaxes there gathered strong bands of men, of whom not even Mars nor Minerva, marshaller of hosts could make light if they went among them, for they were the picked men of all those who were now awaiting the onset of Hector and the Trojans. They made a living fence, spear to spear, shield to shield, buckler to buckler, helmet to helmet, and man to man. The horse-hair crests on their gleaming helmets touched one another as they nodded forward, so closely seffied were they; the spears they brandished in their strong hands were interlaced, and their hearts were set on battle.

The Trojans advanced in a dense body, with Hector at their head pressing right on as a rock that comes thundering down the side of some mountain from whose brow the winter torrents have torn it; the foundations of the dull thing have been loosened by floods of rain, and as it bounds headlong on its way it sets the whole forest in an uproar; it swerves neither to right nor left till it reaches level ground, but then for all its fury it can go no further- even so easily did Hector for a while seem as though he would career through the tents and ships of the Achaeans till he had reached the sea in his murderous course; but the closely serried battalions stayed him when he reached them, for the sons of the Achaeans thrust at him with swords and spears pointed at both ends, and drove him from them so that he staggered and gave ground; thereon he shouted to the Trojans, “Trojans, Lycians, and Dardanians, fighters in close combat, stand firm: the Achaeans have set themselves as a wall against me, but they will not check me for long; they will give ground before me if the mightiest of the gods, the thundering spouse of Juno, has indeed inspired my onset.”

Thus then did they fight as it were a flaming fire. But Hector had not yet heard, and did not know that the Argives were making havoc of his men on the left wing of the battle, where the Achaeans ere long would have triumphed over them, so vigorously did Neptune cheer them on and help them. He therefore held on at the point where he had first forced his way through the gates and the wall, after breaking through the serried ranks of Danaan warriors. It was here that the ships of Ajax and Protesilaus were drawn up by the sea-shore; here the wall was at its lowest, and the fight both of man and horse raged most fiercely. The Boeotians and the Ionians with their long tunics, the Locrians, the men of Phthia, and the famous force of the Epeans could hardly stay Hector as he rushed on towards the ships, nor could they drive him from them, for he was as a wall of fire. The chosen men of the Athenians were in the van, led by Menestheus son of Peteos, with whom were also Pheidas, Stichius, and stalwart Bias: Meges son of Phyleus, Amphion, and Dracius commanded the Epeans, while Medon and staunch Podarces led the men of Phthia. Of these, Medon was bastard son to Oileus and brother of Ajax, but he lived in Phylace away from his own country, for he had killed the brother of his stepmother Eriopis, the wife of Oileus; the other, Podarces, was the son of Iphiclus son of Phylacus. These two stood in the van of the Phthians, and defended the ships along with the Boeotians.

Ajax son of Oileus never for a moment left the side of Ajax son of Telamon, but as two swart oxen both strain their utmost at the plough which they are drawing in a fallow field, and the sweat steams upwards from about the roots of their horns- nothing but the yoke divides them as they break up the ground till they reach the end of the field- even so did the two Ajaxes stand shoulder to shoulder by one another. Many and brave comrades followed the son of Telamon, to relieve him of his shield when he was overcome with sweat and toil, but the Locrians did not follow so close after the son of Oileus, for they could not hold their own in a hand-to-hand fight. They had no bronze helmets with plumes of horse-hair, neither had they shields nor ashen spears, but they had come to Troy armed with bows, and with slings of twisted wool from which they showered their missiles to break the ranks of the Trojans. The others, therefore, with their heavy armour bore the brunt of the fight with the Trojans and with Hector, while the Locrians shot from behind, under their cover; and thus the Trojans began to lose heart, for the arrows threw them into confusion.

The wounded kings, the son of Tydeus, Ulysses, and Agamemnon son of Atreus, fell in Nestor as they were coming up from their ships- for theirs were drawn up some way from where the fighting was going on, being on the shore itself inasmuch as they had been beached first, while the wall had been built behind the hindermost. The stretch of the shore, wide though it was, did not afford room for all the ships, and the host was cramped for space, therefore they had placed the ships in rows one behind the other, and had filled the whole opening of the bay between the two points that formed it. The kings, leaning on their spears, were coming out to survey the fight, being in great anxiety, and when old Nestor met them they were filled with dismay. Then King Agamemnon said to him, “Nestor son of Neleus, honour to the Achaean name, why have you left the battle to come hither? I fear that what dread Hector said will come true, when he vaunted among the Trojans saying that he would not return to Ilius till he had fired our ships and killed us; this is what he said, and now it is all coming true. Alas! others of the Achaeans, like Achilles, are in anger with me that they refuse to fight by the sterns of our ships.”

Then Nestor knight of Gerene answered, “It is indeed as you say; it is all coming true at this moment, and even Jove who thunders from on high cannot prevent it. Fallen is the wall on which we relied as an impregnable bulwark both for us and our fleet. The Trojans are fighting stubbornly and without ceasing at the ships; look where you may you cannot see from what quarter the rout of the Achaeans is coming; they are being killed in a confused mass and the battle-cry ascends to heaven; let us think, if counsel can be of any use, what we had better do; but I do not advise our going into battle ourselves, for a man cannot fight when he is wounded.”

And King Agamemnon answered, “Nestor, if the Trojans are indeed fighting at the rear of our ships, and neither the wall nor the trench has served us- over which the Danaans toiled so hard, and which they deemed would be an impregnable bulwark both for us and our fleet- I see it must be the will of Jove that the Achaeans should perish ingloriously here, far from Argos. I knew when Jove was willing to defend us, and I know now that he is raising the Trojans to like honour with the gods, while us, on the other hand, he bas bound hand and foot. Now, therefore, let us all do as I say; let us bring down the ships that are on the beach and draw them into the water; let us make them fast to their mooring-stones a little way out, against the fall of night- if even by night the Trojans will desist from fighting; we may then draw down the rest of the fleet. There is nothing wrong in flying ruin even by night. It is better for a man that he should fly and be saved than be caught and killed.”

While they were spoiling these heroes of their armour, the Achaeans were flying pellmell to the trench and the set stakes, and were forced back within their wall. Hector then cried out to the Trojans, “Forward to the ships, and let the spoils be. If I see any man keeping back on the other side the wall away from the ships I will have him killed: his kinsmen and kinswomen shall not give him his dues of fire, but dogs shall tear him in pieces in front of our city.”

As he spoke he laid his whip about his horses’ shoulders and called to the Trojans throughout their ranks; the Trojans shouted with a cry that rent the air, and kept their horses neck and neck with his own. Phoebus Apollo went before, and kicked down the banks of the deep trench into its middle so as to make a great broad bridge, as broad as the throw of a spear when a man is trying his strength. The Trojan battalions poured over the bridge, and Apollo with his redoubtable aegis led the way. He kicked down the wall of the Achaeans as easily as a child who playing on the sea-shore has built a house of sand and then kicks it down again and destroys it- even so did you, O Apollo, shed toil and trouble upon the Argives, filling them with panic and confusion.

Thus then were the Achaeans hemmed in at their ships, calling out to one another and raising their hands with loud cries every man to heaven. Nestor of Gerene, tower of strength to the Achaeans, lifted up his hands to the starry firmament of heaven, and prayed more fervently than any of them. “Father Jove,” said he, “if ever any one in wheat-growing Argos burned you fat thigh-bones of sheep or heifer and prayed that he might return safely home, whereon you bowed your head to him in assent, bear it in mind now, and suffer not the Trojans to triumph thus over the Achaeans.”

All counselling Jove thundered loudly in answer to die prayer of the aged son of Neleus. When the heard Jove thunder they flung themselves yet more fiercely on the Achaeans. As a wave breaking over the bulwarks of a ship when the sea runs high before a gale- for it is the force of the wind that makes the waves so great- even so did the Trojans spring over the wall with a shout, and drive their chariots onwards. The two sides fought with their double-pointed spears in hand-to-hand encounter-the Trojans from their chariots, and the Achaeans climbing up into their ships and wielding the long pikes that were lying on the decks ready for use in a sea-fight, jointed and shod with bronze.

———-

“Take heart, and be no more disquieted about this matter; would that I could hide him from death’s sight when his hour is come, so surely as I can find him armour that shall amaze the eyes of all who behold it.”

When he had so said he left her and went to his bellows, turning them towards the fire and bidding them do their office. Twenty bellows blew upon the melting-pots, and they blew blasts of every kind, some fierce to help him when he had need of them, and others less strong as Vulcan willed it in the course of his work. He threw tough copper into the fire, and tin, with silver and gold; he set his great anvil on its block, and with one hand grasped his mighty hammer while he took the tongs in the other.

First he shaped the shield so great and strong, adorning it all over and binding it round with a gleaming circuit in three layers; and the baldric was made of silver. He made the shield in five thicknesses, and with many a wonder did his cunning hand enrich it.

He wrought the earth, the heavens, and the sea; the moon also at her full and the untiring sun, with all the signs that glorify the face of heaven- the Pleiads, the Hyads, huge Orion, and the Bear, which men also call the Wain and which turns round ever in one place, facing. Orion, and alone never dips into the stream of Oceanus.

He wrought also two cities, fair to see and busy with the hum of men. In the one were weddings and wedding-feasts, and they were going about the city with brides whom they were escorting by torchlight from their chambers. Loud rose the cry of Hymen, and the youths danced to the music of flute and lyre, while the women stood each at her house door to see them.

Meanwhile the people were gathered in assembly, for there was a quarrel, and two men were wrangling about the blood-money for a man who had been killed, the one saying before the people that he had paid damages in full, and the other that he had not been paid. Each was trying to make his own case good, and the people took sides, each man backing the side that he had taken; but the heralds kept them back, and the elders sate on their seats of stone in a solemn circle, holding the staves which the heralds had put into their hands. Then they rose and each in his turn gave judgement, and there were two talents laid down, to be given to him whose judgement should be deemed the fairest.

About the other city there lay encamped two hosts in gleaming armour, and they were divided whether to sack it, or to spare it and accept the half of what it contained. But the men of the city would not yet consent, and armed themselves for a surprise; their wives and little children kept guard upon the walls, and with them were the men who were past fighting through age; but the others sallied forth with Mars and Pallas Minerva at their head- both of them wrought in gold and clad in golden raiment, great and fair with their armour as befitting gods, while they that followed were smaller. When they reached the place where they would lay their ambush, it was on a riverbed to which live stock of all kinds would come from far and near to water; here, then, they lay concealed, clad in full armour. Some way off them there were two scouts who were on the look-out for the coming of sheep or cattle, which presently came, followed by two shepherds who were playing on their pipes, and had not so much as a thought of danger. When those who were in ambush saw this, they cut off the flocks and herds and killed the shepherds. Meanwhile the besiegers, when they heard much noise among the cattle as they sat in council, sprang to their horses, and made with all speed towards them; when they reached them they set battle in array by the banks of the river, and the hosts aimed their bronze-shod spears at one another. With them were Strife and Riot, and fell Fate who was dragging three men after her, one with a fresh wound, and the other unwounded, while the third was dead, and she was dragging him along by his heel: and her robe was bedrabbled in men’s blood. They went in and out with one another and fought as though they were living people haling away one another’s dead.

He wrought also a fair fallow field, large and thrice ploughed already. Many men were working at the plough within it, turning their oxen to and fro, furrow after furrow. Each time that they turned on reaching the headland a man would come up to them and give them a cup of wine, and they would go back to their furrows looking forward to the time when they should again reach the headland. The part that they had ploughed was dark behind them, so that the field, though it was of gold, still looked as if it were being ploughed- very curious to behold.

He wrought also a field of harvest corn, and the reapers were reaping with sharp sickles in their hands. Swathe after swathe fell to the ground in a straight line behind them, and the binders bound them in bands of twisted straw. There were three binders, and behind them there were boys who gathered the cut corn in armfuls and kept on bringing them to be bound: among them all the owner of the land stood by in silence and was glad. The servants were getting a meal ready under an oak, for they had sacrificed a great ox, and were busy cutting him up, while the women were making a porridge of much white barley for the labourers’ dinner.

He wrought also a vineyard, golden and fair to see, and the vines were loaded with grapes. The bunches overhead were black, but the vines were trained on poles of silver. He ran a ditch of dark metal all round it, and fenced it with a fence of tin; there was only one path to it, and by this the vintagers went when they would gather the vintage. Youths and maidens all blithe and full of glee, carried the luscious fruit in plaited baskets; and with them there went a boy who made sweet music with his lyre, and sang the Linus-song with his clear boyish voice.

He wrought also a herd of homed cattle. He made the cows of gold and tin, and they lowed as they came full speed out of the yards to go and feed among the waving reeds that grow by the banks of the river. Along with the cattle there went four shepherds, all of them in gold, and their nine fleet dogs went with them. Two terrible lions had fastened on a bellowing bull that was with the foremost cows, and bellow as he might they haled him, while the dogs and men gave chase: the lions tore through the bull’s thick hide and were gorging on his blood and bowels, but the herdsmen were afraid to do anything, and only hounded on their dogs; the dogs dared not fasten on the lions but stood by barking and keeping out of harm’s way.

The god wrought also a pasture in a fair mountain dell, and large flock of sheep, with a homestead and huts, and sheltered sheepfolds.

Furthermore he wrought a green, like that which Daedalus once made in Cnossus for lovely Ariadne. Hereon there danced youths and maidens whom all would woo, with their hands on one another’s wrists. The maidens wore robes of light linen, and the youths well woven shirts that were slightly oiled. The girls were crowned with garlands, while the young men had daggers of gold that hung by silver baldrics; sometimes they would dance deftly in a ring with merry twinkling feet, as it were a potter sitting at his work and making trial of his wheel to see whether it will run, and sometimes they would go all in line with one another, and much people was gathered joyously about the green. There was a bard also to sing to them and play his lyre, while two tumblers went about performing in the midst of them when the man struck up with his tune.

All round the outermost rim of the shield he set the mighty stream of the river Oceanus.

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The Byzantine historian Priscus, sent by the emperor Theodosius the Young on a mission to Attila’s residence, which was on the plains of today Hungary, east of Tisa, calls the subjects of this barbarian king “Ausones” They dwelt in the region where his palace was, spoke a rustic Roman language and lived there among the Huns and Goths (Excerpta de legationibus – Ed Bonnae, 1829, p 190, 206)

The ambassadors of Theodosius, after crossing the Danube, had to travel northwards more than eight days, passing over extensive plains, over several rivers and swampy places, in order to reach Attila’s residence, which was in a locality which Priscus names “sat foarte mare” (TN – very big village), and Jornandes “vicum, ad in star civitatis amplissimae (De Get Orig c 34)

Archeologists working at Cornesti, where Europe’s largest medieval fortification was unearthed, were in for an unexpected surprise. The dig site was checked by police and Romanian Intelligence Agency (SRI) agents, according to Adevarul. Information that somewhere close to Timisoara is Attila’s former capital came from a documentary directed by engineer Leonard Dorogostayski. According to historical data, the king of Huns was buried with an impressive wealth, but the burial spot was never discovered.
“The SRI guys came to ask about Attila’s treasure. It is known that the king of Huns was buried with impressive riches, but the place was never discovered. Legend has it that the people who buried him were killed so that the place would never be revealed,” and eyewitness told the newspaper on condition of anonymity.

Officially, archeologists made no mention about the SRI checks, but confirmed that the police sent a team to the site to find out what exactly was going on there. According to archeologists, the polcie wanted to make sure that in case Attila’s treasure was found, it would have fallen into the right hands. “It’s madness with these rumors. Treasure hunters will start showing up. Huns’ hypothesis is absolutely unreal. Attila had a moving capital. If anything of the kind had been here, it would have been inscribed in the time’s history,” said Alexandru Szentmiklosi, head of Banat Museum’s Archeology Department.

“Police from the National Heritage Office make regular checks at all archeological dig sites in Timis. They check if the digs are don legally, if there are authorizations and if legislation is respected, they have no interest in what kind of items get discovered. The checks are not done together with SRI agents,” said Timis Police spokesperson Marinela Apostolache.

Police presence scared foreign archeologists who are working at the Cornesti fortifications. Information that somewhere close to Timisoara was Attila’s capital came from a documentary directed by engineer Leonard Dorogostayski. He launched three hypotheses as regards the huge settlement uncovered there: a fortification from the time of the Avars, a vast Bronze Age settlement, of the Huns’ capital, a theory backed by a Canada researcher as well, after viewing the location with Google Earth.

The settlement could be 3,500 years old. Based on carbon-14 tests, it was established that the fortification dates back to the second half of the second millenium before Christ. “The fortification belongs to the Cruceni-Belegis culture, which spread from north-east Croatia to Banat’s lower regions, controlling the Danube valley and to the north of Mures,” Szentmiklosi added.